Boomtown poison: Political culture under the shadow of lead poisoning in West Texas

How do citizens reconcile conservative politics with the daily consequences of state inaction? How does the lack of access to basic services, such as clean water, shape particular forms of political ideology? Based on 40 in-depth interviews, three months of participant observation, and historical and archival research, this paper examines how political culture is produced and contested in a small working-class community in rural Boomtown, TX.

An oil boomtown of the early 20th century, the population of Boomtown has steadily declined over the last one hundred years. Save for a small boom in the 1970s, the crumbling infrastructure, lack of jobs, and contaminated water containing twenty-eight times the federal limit of lead are consequences of socioeconomic transformations that are not unique to Boomtown, but are characteristic of rural America. Rather than seek to argue that residents are beholden to an ideological contradiction and/or false consciousness, this project seeks to understand a “paradox”: how support for authoritarian populism emerges from rural dispossession and is legitimized through everyday practice. By paying particular attention to not only what residents say, but also what they do, the paper argues that political ideology must be understood as a lived experience rooted in the routines, decisions, and practices of everyday life. While some residents resist the evidence and continue to consume the water, many residents purchase bottled water for consumption, cooking, and bathing. By observing and analyzing how residents engage with a contaminated water supply, the author argues towards a moral economy of rural dispossession which provides ideological support for populist authoritarianism.

This paper was presented at the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) 2018 Conference: "Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World"