In what might be the most condescending strategy of the year, Democrats are scrambling to defend taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS by insulting the very Americans they claim to represent. With President Trump’s $9 billion spending cut slashing funds for public broadcasting, left-wing lawmakers and media allies are sounding the alarm—but not about free speech or news integrity. Instead, they’ve decided rural Americans are too dumb to survive without federal radio and TV.

The head of NPR, Katherine Maher, recently claimed that public broadcasting is essential in “large rural communities” for emergency alerts, weather updates, and disaster information. But even the most generous reading of that argument falls apart under scrutiny. As critics have pointed out, no such region exists where PBS or NPR are the only sources of vital updates. Local TV stations, AM radio, and smartphones all fill that role—and they’re far more widespread and accessible than the government-backed networks Democrats are desperately trying to save.

This bizarre narrative reeks of elitism. Democrats appear convinced that if you live outside the D.C.-New York bubble, you must be a helpless hick who can’t access the internet or figure out a weather app. It’s a rerun of Kamala Harris’s infamous claim that rural voters couldn’t find photocopiers. It didn’t land then, and it’s not landing now.

More importantly, it reveals how little Democrats understand or respect the people who make up rural America. The idea that these voters need NPR to tell them what to do during a thunderstorm is laughable—and deeply offensive. Most rural Americans pride themselves on self-reliance, not on being dependent on East Coast elites for their safety or worldview.

And here’s the kicker: Democrats aren’t even trying to hide the real reason they’re furious. NPR and PBS are long-standing bastions of left-wing ideology. The idea that conservative taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to bankroll outlets that mock their values is common sense to most Americans. But to D.C. Democrats, it’s unthinkable. They see public broadcasting as their messaging pipeline—and they don’t want to lose it.

But if these networks are really as beloved and necessary as their defenders claim, they can survive on their own. Fundraisers, subscriptions, ad revenue—those are how media outlets with real audiences stay afloat. If public broadcasting can’t make it without government handouts, then maybe the audience just isn’t there.

And let’s be honest about who really listens to NPR. It’s not farmers in Iowa. It’s coastal progressives in yoga studios and college towns. The people Democrats are claiming to fight for with this funding argument are not even their base of listeners. That makes the rural defense tactic even more disingenuous.

Ultimately, the real panic is about power. Trump’s defunding of NPR and PBS is just one piece of a broader strategy to dismantle the left’s institutional control—from media to education to bureaucracies. And it’s working. That’s why Democrats are flailing—and why they’re resorting to patronizing stereotypes about voters they long ago abandoned.

The mask is off. Democrats don’t trust rural Americans. They don’t even respect them. And now they want those same voters to foot the bill for propaganda they don’t consume and don’t support. Thankfully, the days of compulsory taxpayer funding for leftist media are coming to an end.