Print Column: The Dumbest Thing Democrats Could Do Is Listen to Heidi Heitkamp

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MINOT, N.D. — For some reason Heidi Heitkamp — despite just one, flukey electoral victory to her name in the last two decades — has been anointed an expert in certain Democratic circles on how to appeal to rural voters.

Recently, the erstwhile senator delivered a luncheon speech to a convention of Montana Democrats, and what she had to say can explain not only Heitkamp’s own lack of electoral success but why Democrats probably aren’t going to be making inroads with rural voters any time soon.

“Heitkamp nudged Democrats toward a tough truth,” the Montana Free Press reported. “If they’re to have any hope of defeating Trump next year, they have to change how they speak to rural America — about education, about health care, about jobs, and about Trump himself.”

That is pablum.

The rhetorical equivalent of eating empty calories.

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