An ode to my North Carolina hometown as Trump's policies threaten to destroy it | Opinion

I knew I was home when, halfway through a 13-hour Amtrak train trip, we passed rows upon rows of tobacco yellowing in the August sun. The leaves waved lazily as we sped past, welcoming me back to North Carolina.

It was Labor Day weekend, and I was en route to my hometown to celebrate my grandfather’s 90th birthday. As my train rode past major East Coast cities and sleepy river towns, I could feel the emotions swirling in my gut – emotions about where I’m from, and where a part of me will always live.

Like most people, I have a complicated relationship with where I grew up. I’ve been trying to parse out how I feel about “back home” ever since I left in 2023.

These feelings are exacerbated by the contradictory politics of the state, a place that has gone for President Donald Trump in the past three elections while also electing Democratic governors. It’s a state that is now being harmed by Trump’s policies, leading to a dip in his popularity as people realize that they voted for a man who made empty promises.

Trump's MAGA policies will hurt my rural home state

I grew up in Mount Airy, North Carolina, a small town on the northern border of the state. It’s best known as the inspiration for Mayberry, the fictional place Andy Griffith depicted in his eponymous show.

But Mount Airy is not Mayberry, and reality is far less idyllic.

More than 20% of the town's population lives in poverty. The town’s tourism industry kept it afloat after the textile plants closed (which happened under the leadership of both Republican and Democratic governors).

It’s also Trump country: More than three-quarters of Surry County, where Mount Airy is located, voted for the president in the 2024 election. I have learned to be unsurprised by this, even if it fills me with resentment for the place that raised me.

Trump’s policies directly threaten my hometown and other rural parts of North Carolina. The budget Congress recently passed cuts Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, which will surely impact health care in the county. Trump’s tariffs, which could cost the average family $2,400 annually, will have disastrous effects on a community where the median household income is just over $43,000 a year.

Were a hurricane to hit my hometown, as Hurricane Helene did in neighboring counties in 2024, funding cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency would mean slower assistance – even after Trump complained on the campaign trail that the Biden administration's response to Helene was not good enough before later denying my state help.

I'm sad that my home has become the poster town for MAGA

Yet my hometown is the poster child for Trump country, the ideal that MAGA voters are trying to return to even if that ideal is little more than television magic.

Occasionally, a national news outlet will realize that my hometown is the perfect encapsulation of Trump’s America and go speak with the mostly elderly, mostly white tourists chasing nostalgia in TV Sheriff Andy Taylor’s squad car, making an unspoken point about "Trump's America." It happened in 2017 in The Washington Post and again in 2021 with CBS News. While I respect the work of these journalists, I always come away from these articles feeling ashamed and bitter.

I'm protective of Mount Airy, even if I'm critical of it. I wish people would understand that there are still people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community in small towns. In fact, people in my hometown organized a Labor Day protest against Trump and his policies.

Yes, the people interviewed by national outlets are scared of the "woke agenda" and want us to return to "the good old days," when marginalized communities were punished for existing. But they are not the only people in Surry County. Even if they were, conservative political opinions do not mean these people deserve to lose access to health care or disaster assistance.

My community deserves better than Trump's destructive policies

I could write about North Carolina for the rest of my life and never have enough words to explain what this place means to me.

I also know that it is a place that doesn’t always love me back, where my intersecting identities as a woman, a queer person, a granddaughter of immigrants and a progressive are not always welcome, much less celebrated. I especially feel that way in my hometown, the place I left as soon as I could for bluer parts of the state.

At the same time, I can’t stomach the idea of blaming North Carolinians for the destruction Trump is bringing to the country, from a budget that only adds to the federal deficit to his complete disregard for the rule of law.

It also seems that the state's voters are losing faith in the man they elected: A recent Catawba College/YouGov survey found that 54% of North Carolinians now disapprove of Trump, even if they're not stuck with his policies.

Aside from the voter suppression tactics the right has been using in the state for decades, there is a real need for Democratic presence in rural parts of North Carolina where local Republican activists are organizing year-round. While I have gained some faith in the state Democratic Party in recent years, I am also aware that these things don’t change overnight.

But as the Southern accents fade back into memory and I settle back into the unrelenting current of New York City, I’m worried about what's to come for my hometown. Trump isn't just attacking big cities; he's also ignoring rural communities. There is no part of the country left untouched by the president's narcissism, no municipality spared from meddling. It doesn't matter where you live – there's no escape, and we all will need to reckon with this sooner or later.

Even in Mayberry.