Biden

For now, rural America and electric vehicles are not a good fit

If you want to know what people think, just ask them. And don’t be surprised when their position is the exact opposite of what gets pushed in Washington D.C.

For example, here in rural America, nobody wants an electric vehicle.

Maybe “nobody” is too strong of a word. There are a lot of people in rural America.

But nobody I’ve talked to—and I like to talk—wants one.

There are a lot of wide open spaces in the Midwest. It can easily be a 30 mile roundtrip to a grocery store or a school. Any decent-sized shopping center or major hospital could be a 100-150 mile roundtrip.

And there just aren’t sufficient charging stations in the Midwest. S & P Global Mobility, provider of automotive data and analysis, estimated that charging stations must be quadrupled between 2022 and 2025 in order to conveniently handle the needs of electric vehicles on the road, and the number must increase eight-fold by 2030.

I recently purchased a vehicle from a nearby dealership that had zero electric vehicles on the lot. While he was completing the paperwork on my new-to-me 2020 Ford Edge Titanium, we talked about EVs. He recently took his family on a wonderful road trip with a standard internal combustion engine vehicle and saw a big chunk of this beautiful country. They left Northeast Iowa and headed toward Niagara Falls. From there, they went on to Acadia National Park in Maine. They traveled through the southern part of Canada and made their way back to Iowa. They had a great trip but were glad to get home. He had a job to get back to, and the family had other obligations. He’s a numbers guy and reflected on his trip, wondering how it would have gone with an electric vehicle. He retraced his path and identified where charging stations were available. Because of the limited range of EVs, the limited availability of charging stations, and the lengthy time requirement to charge, he figured his road trip would have taken an extra eight days to complete.

Nobody I know has eight vacation days to give to an electric vehicle.

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021 includes $7.5 billion in subsidies for 500,000 new EV charging stations. For starters, 500,000 aren’t enough. But we just closed out 2023, and not a single station had been built yet.  

There’s a definite trust issue from Midwesterners when it comes to the federal government accomplishing infrastructure goals—even if you give it $1.2 trillion dollars.

Additionally, cold weather is hard on batteries. It’s the norm and not unusual for winter evenings to dip below zero. And anyone from the heartland will tell you that it’s a myth that winter lasts just three months. Snow can fall on Halloween and not end until Easter. That’s a lot of frustrating days being spent on electric vehicles. 

The electric vehicle may have its place, but it doesn’t need to be every place.

The Department of Energy reports that the top three states with electric vehicles are California, Florida and Texas. These states have several, large metropolitan cities located within its borders. The city is one place where electric vehicles can work. If you’re fortunate enough to have a garage, you can charge your vehicle overnight—every night. It would be suitable to zip around a city to get to work and back and to run errands. Think of the electric vehicle as a personal urban taxi. And I’m sure it helps the air quality in these highly congested areas.

Another thing that California, Florida and Texas have going for them is their warm climate. It will be kind to their electric vehicle batteries.

The Biden Administration is pushing too hard in its attempt to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road. If all of this was such a great idea, free markets and supply and demand principles would be making it happen instead of the government subsidizing it with taxpayer dollars.

More time, greater infrastructure, and further innovation are needed before the internal combustion engine takes its last breath, especially in rural America.

Right now, electric vehicles would make life more difficult for country folks.

And nobody I know wants a harder life.

Vote for Trump, despite race, gender and peer pressure

Image by Shutterstock.

There are Trump voters, Biden voters, and undecided voters.

There’s a fourth group of voters, though. They’re people who actually agree with the policies of President Donald Trump but are abandoning their vote for him.  

Race, gender and pressure from family and friends are probably the three biggest reasons why a vote doesn’t match a belief system.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of validated voters from the 2016 election. It reported that 91% of Blacks, who cast a vote, did so for Hillary Clinton. That election was not unusual. The Center found that in the last 40 years, Black voters have solidly supported Democratic contenders.

Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, may believe it’s “a given” that he’ll receive the Black vote. He stated, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump then you ain’t Black.”

Nothing could be more racist than to tell someone that it’s not necessary to do your own thinking.

Since 2016, Black unemployment fell and wages increased. Criminal justice reform became real with The First Step Act. And Opportunity Zones made entrepreneurship more possible for Black Americans. This all happened under the first three years of the Trump administration, before a global pandemic hit.

The Center also found in a recent poll that only 39% of women voters favor the president’s re-election.   

Some have called Trump a misogynist because of past words and actions.  

But there’s plenty of video of Biden and his many inappropriate actions with women. And then there’s the sexual assault allegation by a former aide.

Neither one is a saint.

But during the Trump presidency, female unemployment fell and wages increased. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the child care tax credit. And safety is on the ballot, this year. Trump has received many law enforcement endorsements. Biden never condemned the violence, burning and looting happening in predominately Democratic-run cities, during his own national convention.  

Besides race and gender, there’s the pressure factor from friends and family who value personality over policy.

Although this president has given us too many testy tweets and not enough lofty oratory, he did something more important.

He brought back our nation’s confidence.

We are an exceptional nation, and we don’t need to apologize for it.   

He fortified a military that was becoming vulnerable. Peace is only possible through strength.  

Trump went to work immediately on correcting huge trade deficits with China, Mexico, Canada, and others that hurt the American worker, while other corrupt players became filthy rich. The swamp hates Trump.   

United States taxpayers are no longer expected to foot every bill from every world organization, while other nations don’t do their fair share.

The small business optimism index reached record highs under the Trump administration, because of his regulation-slashing and tax-cutting measures. When small businesses are optimistic, they hire more, pay more, and invest more in their businesses.

And if 401k growth is your thing, consider that the stock market fell when Trump entered the hospital for COVID-19 and rose when he was released. The economy likes Trump.

In the book, “The Help,” 1960’s Black maid, Aibileen, talks with her friend, Minny, about the imaginary lines in our lives—whether it’s about racism or domestic abuse. “I used to believe in em. I don’t anymore. They in our heads…Lot a folks think if you talk back to you husband, you crossed the line. And that justifies punishment. You believe in that line?…Cause that line ain’t there. Except in Leroy’s head. Lines between black and white ain’t there neither. Some folks just made those up, long time ago…You don’t have to get hit by Leroy no more…You are free.”

Plenty of people lay down lines for voting, too.

Maybe nobody has reminded you of this in a long while, but you are free.

Free to vote according to your belief system.  

It’s not the race vote, the gender vote, the household vote, the friend circle vote, or family tree vote.

It’s one person—one vote. Yours.

Study each party’s platform. Make a choice. And don’t let any imaginary lines get in your way.