Mondale placed the blame on the policies of Ronald Reagan. And though NAFTA has become a popular political talking point, its impact on the region has been secondary. The most common culprit for Rust Belt woes cited by politicians and the media is the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. Since the election, the term has continued to appear even more often in the mainstream media, usually in articles seeking to understand the appeal of Trump in the so-called Rust Belt region-again, despite Trump’s equal or greater support elsewhere in the country. Although Trump’s support was strong in the South, the West, and many areas of blue states like New York and California, Trump used the Rust Belt as an example of America’s fall from prior greatness. Starting with the 2016 presidential election, the term was used more than it had been in recent memory by the American press, usually to describe the then-surprising popularity of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who were campaigning, just like Walter Mondale before them, for more restrictive trade policies. This is true internationally, too-China and Russia and Germany and just about any country with a history of manufacturing have rust belts where economies were once based on industry and now no longer are least, that is how such declining regions are described in news headlines. Louis, as well as abutting regions such as Appalachia, can be fun to debate over beers-just how rusty are they?-but in the end, anywhere an economy was previously based on manufacturing and has since been losing population can be part of the gang. As far west as Milwaukee and as far east as Buffalo usually works. ![]() Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are central to the region, as well as parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. Post-industrial Midwest can serve as a synonym (along with its cousins, industrial Midwest and formerly industrial Midwest). Rust Belt is a historical term, like New England and Sun Belt (even Midwest is as much historic as geographic). There are no natural borders, as there are with the East and West Coasts, say, or topographic features, as with the Great Plains or the Rocky Mountains. The term was not invented by geographers but by a politician and the media. But the term has stuck.ĭefinitions of where, exactly, the Rust Belt is are also often debated ¹. There is a sizable contingent-especially among the baby boomers who remember the moment the term was coined-who consider it derogatory and strive to have it replaced (recent attempts to rebrand the region include the Trust Belt, the New American Heartland, and the Freshwater Region). For over three decades since, the term has been deplored, praised, and parsed. ![]() The press tweaked Mondale’s dust bowl reference into Rust Belt, to make it play off Sun Belt, another new term for an American region, this one coined in 1969 by Kevin Phillips in his book The Emerging Republican Majority, to describe a happier set of shifting demographics and economic policies. As he put it, Reagan’s policies are turning our industrial Midwest into a rust bowl. ![]() At a campaign stop during the presidential election, Mondale made a speech to steelworkers at the LTV plant in Cleveland in which he decried Reagan’s position on trade, particularly the lifting of quotas on steel imports, which had sent the industry into crisis. The name was largely created in 1984 by, of all people, Walter Mondale. THE RUST BELT, LINGUISTICALLY SPEAKING, is one of America’s newest regions. INTRODUCTION Why the Rust Belt Matters (and What It Is) ![]() Voices from the Rust Belt pulls together disparate stories from people who call the region home, offering an authentic view of the evolving economic and cultural realities for generations of Americans. The Rust Belt’s economic woes helped elect Donald Trump in the2016 Presidential race, yet the disparities between individual situations are much more nuanced than the grouped together political talking points. That said, the region is neither a stable collective nor is it easily understood. The region’s borders are not quite defined on a geographic level, but rather a linguistic one, as the term is meant to refer to the country’s steadily declining manufacturing center. A collection of essays addressing both dark and light themes running rampant in rural America, specifically the land of the “Post-Industrial Midwest.” The text provides an insider’s look into grim experiences such as opiate addiction, job downsizing, and suburban apathy but also, into the happier times of nature-filled childhoods, close-knit communities, and welcoming oases for outsiders looking to escape the rush of urban life.Īnnie Trubek curates stories drawn from uniquely personal experiences to bring the reader into the world of America’s Rust Belt.
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