Great post. I would also test the water on high speed train infrastructure. Make these states in the middle no longer 'fly over'. Building that out across America would be a massive undertaking and I have no idea if it is feasible but it's a better idea than a fucking wall. It also speaks to your idea about giving handouts through government work. It creates jobs across the US, it makes places like St Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit and Cleveland places that you don't just fly over but cross through and patronage. It brings jobs to the Midwest and it brings people and new companies to the Midwest. It also might help with the idea that people are still people out here. Being from IA, I get one aspect of this pretty well. I'm not thought of because I'm not seen. If you get cheap train rides through (and not over) my state and the ones around me, I think a psychological barrier might also come down. It's known Vikings, Cubs, Cards and Cavs fans exist because they're seen on TV but you've never seen them in their natural habitat, maybe.
This might be pie-in-the-sky stuff, but I think it's a nice thought. Campaigning on bringing jobs back to the Midwest via a large infrastructure project like high-speed rail that shows a willingness to reach out to these 'flyover' states in an unprecedented way shows a sharp contracts to a divisive wall mega project. Think of the optics of building out rail and truly uniting against building up a wall and literally dividing. The optics of killing a term like 'flyover states' is also a win, imo. At least to me and the people I know and love.
Yeah, yeah. I know, I know...
But, I can say that with all of the talk of these dilapidated dying towns through the Rust Belt and Midwest if you started bringing
one of these motherfuckers through Des Moines (it's a great city, too! Everybody come visit!) you'll get people out here feeling a lot better about the idea that we, too, are in the now and not being left behind, even if our fashion will always be 10 years behind.