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Rural voters reject vouchers when the policy threatens the only public school anchoring their community.
Local educators shape political understanding far more effectively than top-down party messaging.
Uncontested districts allow extremism to flourish by removing accountability from statehouse power.
A trip like the one Lisa Senecal recounts in Robertson County becomes a reminder that political identity is often thinner than community identity, especially when a public school is the only institution holding a rural place together. David Pepper shows how the fight over school vouchers cuts across party lines because “why would I ever want my dollars … to go to a private school hundreds of miles away?” The deeper point lands in his description of teachers and principals acting as trusted voices long before any TV ads arrive, shaping a local consensus that the outside world misunderstands. And it’s there—where neighbors talk to neighbors, not algorithms shouting into feeds—that you can see how extremism loses traction once voters realize the stakes are their kids, their taxes, and the survival of the one institution that still feels like theirs.
Tune in for a conversation about why democracy can be saved from the bottom up.

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