"For a week, it was MAGA versus meatloaf. Last month, the rustic restaurant chain Cracker Barrel committed the grave offense of introducing a new logo. Gone were the titular barrel and overall-clad Uncle Herschel, the Tennessee-based eatery's mascot. In a saner universe, this switch would have been a mundane exercise in corporate repositioning. Instead, Christopher Rufo and Donald Trump Jr. accused the company of abandoning its heartland roots in favor of "wokification." Cracker Barrel's stock value promptly fell by $94 million."
"But this wasn't just another skirmish in America's never-ending culture war. Instead, it was a deliberate and profoundly disingenuous distraction from the real crises facing the heartland-crises that the Trump administration's policies are exacerbating. Trump has won rural voters in each of his presidential campaigns, and his share of their vote increased every cycle from 2016 to 2024. But he is repaying this loyalty with policies that endanger the lives and livelihoods of rural Americans."
Cracker Barrel altered its logo and faced immediate accusations of 'wokification' from MAGA figures, prompting a swift corporate reversal after public pressure. The episode functioned as a culture-war spectacle that diverted attention from substantive policy harms in rural America. The One Big Beautiful Bill's trillion-dollar Medicaid cuts will disproportionately impact rural areas, where nearly a quarter of residents rely on Medicaid and the program covers almost half of births. A $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund would replace only 37 percent of lost rural Medicaid dollars, threatening services like labor and delivery wards and undermining rural healthcare access.
Read at The Nation
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