Elizabeth Hodges lives in Concord.
I have been listening to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” over and over today in honor of her being the first Black woman with a solo writing credit on a country song. Last week, the cover sung by Luke Combs reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart; it was at No. 3 on the all-genre Hot 100 chart, after peaking at No. 2. The lyrics and melody appeal to a cross-culture of people who have been marginalized by poverty.
It’s not a song about race. It’s a song about living in the United States for too many of our population. It holds forth the American dream as if anyone can achieve it. But can they? It’s becoming increasingly difficult for those who have not been able to break the cycle of food stamps and government assistance no matter how hard they work.
This is a condition that affects us all. The US Census declared that in 2014, 14.8% of the general population lived in poverty: As of 2010 about half of those living in poverty are non-Hispanic white (19.6 million). Non-Hispanic white children comprised 57% of all poor rural children.
What does poverty in the US mean? For a single person, in 2023, that means making $14,580 or less; for a family of four, $30,000 or less. This doesn’t include the middle class which makes up 52% of the population based on census data from 2021. For a single person, that’s calculated at $26,093 to $78,280, which leaves a gap for the lower middle class – they’re making too much income for full benefits but not enough to get by.
But, New Hampshire is the eighth wealthiest state in the United States, having a median household income of $76,768 as of 2019. It also runs second only to California as the state that has the most millionaires per capita (8.47% in 2020). As the fourth least racially and ethnically diverse state, New Hampshire is 93.1% white, which places it at 47 in overall rank.
We represent neither Tracy Chapman’s culture nor Luke Combs’. Nor do we represent the financially insecure. South Carolina does. It ranks 40th in the list of wealthy states. It ranks 43rd in the list of millionaires per capita. And South Carolina ranks 23rd in racial and ethnic diversity.
In an article published in the Concord Monitor on July 8, Secretary of State David Scanlan stated to Concord Monitor political correspondent Paul Steinhauser that “…I can tell you that there is one issue where the state is united — both Republicans and Democrats — and that is the first in the nation status of the New Hampshire primary.” I disagree.
As a proud citizen of the state of New Hampshire for 42 years who is a secret celebrity stalker, I got a thrill from the access to so many political candidates and the celebrities that touted them.
But I have no attachment to being the first in the primaries and am ashamed that partisan politics in the state are so invested in the fight. It benefits no one other than those relatively few professionals in the state who have made their living selling pork.
When the Old Man in the Mountain crumbled, I mourned with the rest of New Hampshire. I was happy for the times I rode past and stopped to look at that rugged bygone face. But he’s still on stamps. He’s still on mugs in the State House. He’s still in my memory which at 72 doesn’t have much longer. Change is inevitable. As Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs so beautifully state, it is America. It is life. So is stasis. Of the two and New Hampshire’s primary status, I choose change.
This country desperately needs it. The struggling population of the country needs it. And New Hampshire stands to lose more than its boutique first in the nation primary status by men desperately clinging to an old order when politics were “fun” and refusing to read the crowd — it stands to lose its political relevancy.