Is It Impossible to Understand the Geography of the American West?

James Pogue is a very annoying writer about the contemporary American West. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is an exceptionally annoying Democratic congresswoman. That’s not because she’s a moderate in a purple district. That I understand. It’s because she’s a preening narcissist. Thus, I knew this Times op-ed promoting her would make me cranky. But it wasn’t quite for the reason I thought.

So OK, Democrats absolutely do need to do a better reaching out to rural America, a fact that is both incontrovertible and yet which drives LGM commenters batty for some reason, as if they would rather lose than change any one thing about the contemporary Democratic Party. And Perez may even have a few good ideas here, though not as many as she thinks. Her idea about a “right to repair” might even be a good idea, though the number of Republican voters who even know what this is and would then change their votes to Democrats if only the party would embrace policies to force companies to allow for tinkering of products such as smartphones seems to me to be about zero.

No, the thing pissed me off is how the article refers to her as a “rural” congresswoman.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez represents Vancouver, Washington, which is one mile from Portland, Oregon. There are rural parts of her district. There are also rural parts of lots of districts that Democrats represent. That does not make them rural Democrats. Granted, she lives in Skamania County, which is ruralesque though not nearly as conservative as she likes to play up, but she won because she represents Vancouver and suburbs in Clark County. She’s done well there and good for her–she’s able to pull a few Republicans and win in a district that Democrats have targeted for years without winning before her. Good for her.

Still, is it that hard to understand basic geography?