Hearing from the Heart of the Country

Hearing from the Heart of the Country

For several decades now, there has been a persistent complaint that much of the country west of the Appalachians and east of the Cascades is ignored, misunderstood, and uncared for by the elites who run everything. It’s often expressed as resentment toward the “coastal elites.” Whether that perception is true or not, it is deeply felt—and that is what has to be dealt with.

Major news organizations would no doubt object, insisting they cover significant events wherever they occur in the country. That’s true as far as it goes, but “significant events” usually mean disasters, scandals, or anything that can be sensationalized. Those stories must be reported, of course, but what is truly significant in the daily lives of ordinary people seldom rises to that level of drama.

National print media—based largely in coastal cities—naturally focus on issues that shape the quality of life in their own regions. National cable and online news platforms tend to concentrate on national and international politics, turning to local stories elsewhere only when they qualify as “breaking news.” Yet the local and regional issues that define quality of life—housing costs, jobs, education, infrastructure—are present in every part of the country, rural and urban alike. They are no less important than what is happening in New York, Washington, Chicago, or Los Angeles.

If the voice of the Heartland is to be heard and valued, those same kinds of issues must be covered nationally as well.

How can that be done? It would help if major news outlets—both the established networks and the newer ones claiming to replace them—reported regularly on public polling data from across the nation. Not everywhere all the time, but somewhere every day, so that at any given moment some part of the country would be in the public eye.

The polling data worth reporting aren’t the usual empty questions like “Is the country on the right track?” or “Are we headed in the right direction?” Those are meaningless. What track? Which direction? Far more valuable are questions about the cost of living, the availability of well-paying jobs, the quality of local schools, and other conditions that shape daily life. Better still are questions about what people themselves believe would make for a better life in their own communities.

Reporting on such things would not be difficult. The data already exist in every state, gathered by universities and local polling organizations. Sophisticated national surveys aren’t necessary. The point is simply this: to make the people’s voice heard—in some form—on a national scale, every day.