Can't poor white Christians move and improve their situation like I have been told that poor inner city minorities can? Bootstraps, choices, personal responsibility and all that?
This is a common response by many ( i.e. pull yourself up and make your own destiny) and I can see why many would take it.
Here's my view on it. Years ago, there was a post about the Rooney Rule in the Shark Pool when it was still fairly new. Marvin Lewis had already been hired but not so long before the post was made. I pointed out that I opposed the Rooney Rule as it was constructed ( IMHO a form of extortion) but did not oppose looking at other alternatives to create coaching opportunities or more young coach to owner/GM interactions possible.
The position I took is that no matter how anyone feels personally about black America, we should all, as a baseline of economic reality, want the black culture to find widespread success in this country. The cost of the racial divide regarding African Americans is staggering. The cost of open or silent Affirmative Action. The massive crime rate associated with black Americans, esp to each other. The prison system. The number of children born in broken homes and homes without fathers. The number of black single mothers surviving on social assistance of some kind. I pointed out the "Three Point Hit" If you have a young black male in prison, he's not contributing to the tax base as a functioning member of our society. (1st hit) Also he's chewing up our tax dollars for the cost of incarcerating him long term ( 2nd hit) And it creates a perpetual negative loop where there are no black fathers in the homes of young black children to perpetuate the cycle of single mothers/incarcerated & wayward fathers, where many of those single mother/children situations end up on welfare/needing some type of government aid ( 3rd hit)
The reality is all of America's problems boil down to resource management issues. We cannot function as a society and have major segments of the population not contributing to the tax base and eating up tax dollars to patchwork the problems of those communities and load up our prisons to create another financial hit.
I pointed out I very much wanted black people to succeed in America but the open irony was that the black noted leaders of the time - Johnny Cochrane ( still alive then), Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson had no incentive for racism to end. Their careers and their social power come from racism existing. If racism died tomorrow, they'd be out of work and mostly powerless. It would help society at large, but not their pocketbooks and media campaigns.
In the same way, we can all say impoverished rural white Christian Americans need to figure it out themselves. But if we ignore that problem, it's just massive "Three Point Hit" to destabilize our internal economy and make effective resource management, how we must solve problems, impossible.
We all, as taxpayers, are going to pay one way or the other for the inability of poor rural white Christian America to save itself. We can ignore it, as many have, and pay in taxes, in our criminal justice system, in our education system, in our cultural divide or we can pay in taxes and look for practical logistical strategies to lift the burden off of all of America.
It's "their problem" but we all, as taxpayers and citizens carry the weight. If we are going to carry the weight, let's at least make it worth the toil.
I do not believe we as a society should walk in and fix all of rural white poor America's problems. JD Vance doesn't even believe that, which is why I posted so many of his article and videos as context. I do believe however we can spend enough to build the systems in place where they can do better to save themselves.
They have to walk the long hard dark road ahead of them. What we can do is clear some of the obstacles off that road and deny access to the other roads that lead to nowhere for them.
When Americans see this as a resource management problem and not a partisan one, then I believe the logical answers will present themselves naturally. I recognize your sentiment, I held it myself for many years, but this is NOT altruism. Helping rural white and black urban America is based in our own survival and self interest. What I've described is the difference between altruism and goodwill.
Poor white rural Christian America needs our goodwill. We need it too.
This may be simultaneously the most epic and the most repugnant thing I’ve ever read on these boards. 
