“We Don’t Need Politicians”— Woman Claims America Runs on Rural Folk

The rural communities of the nation, aka the cities and towns with only one or two grocery stores, definitely come with their pros and cons. If you’re from a rural city or town, you might be able to pick out more pros than cons. But if you’re from a bigger city and relocate to one of these quiet little pieces of land, you might find that options for shopping, restaurants, and leisure activities are extremely limited.

Life is definitely different in rural communities compared to large cities, but according to TikTok user Dana Waite (@danawaite), who is giving major India Amarteifio vibes, it’s the rural folk who run America. Because beyond the lack of shopping and dining, she says these areas have people who are simply willing to show up for others. Like the time her car broke down and three different men stopped to help her. Let’s get into her story and why she says rural America deserves more credit than it gets.

So Dana Waite lives in rural America, and the only way she can describe why she believes the country should run on rural folks (because they’re the ones holding it up) is through the experience she had when her car broke down at a gas station. She says she and her son were getting ready to leave when her car wouldn’t start. She assumed it was the battery and waited for someone to pull up.

A guy wearing a Carhartt shirt finally pulls in, and she asks if he knows how to jump a car. He says yes and adds that he’s a mechanic, to which Dana jokes, “Of course he is.” They try jumping her car a few times, but nothing happens.

Then another man in a truck shows up, guy No. 2, and he also tries to pump some juice into her car. Still nothing. In the meantime, he notices corrosion on her battery and grabs some Coke to pour on it and clean it off. But then guy No. 1 has to leave for work, and Dana decides to repay him for his time and help by buying his breakfast, which consisted of two energy drinks and a funfetti cake. How fun!

Then Dana says another older man comes over, guy No. 3, and she proceeds to add a little dry humor to her story, saying, “He has a beard. I trust him.” Apparently that’s a quality many people associate with a trustworthy rural person. He offers to bring over a gadget he’s sure will get her car started, but it doesn’t work either.

By now, you’d think these men would’ve given up and left her stranded. But they didn’t. Instead, guy No. 2 suggests the issue might be her alternator and says he’ll go home to grab something more powerful to try to jump it. He also brings back something to clean off more of the corrosion. And while he wasn’t able to get the car started, he was able to diagnose the real problem — the alternator.

He then asks if she has a ride, and she does, thanks to another rural townsperson she met only three weeks earlier who eventually came to pick her up.

The moral of Dana’s story is pretty simple, and it’s that rural folk run America and really are what America needs to thrive. “When I tell you America runs on rural folk, America runs on rural folk. It does not run on politicians. It does not run on money. It runs off men and women. Men who go to work on energy drinks and funfetti cakes from the gas station. Men who will spend an hour trying to get your car battery fixed,” Dana tells viewers.

She also added, “We don’t need politicians, we just need rural folk.”

The point is, Dana wasn’t left stranded, and she didn’t have to spend tons of money to get home. She had kind people around her, rural community members who willingly sacrificed their time and energy to help her simply because they wanted to.