Red State, Blue City: How the Urban-Rural Divide is Splitting America

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/red-state-blue-city-how-the-urban-rural-divide-is-splitting-america/265686/

Starting before the Civil War era, America's political dividing lines were drawn along state and regional borders. Cities and the then-extensive rural areas shared a worldview North and South of the Mason-Dixon line. While there was always tension within states, they were bound by a common politics. The city of Charleston, for example, was as rabidly anti-North as some inland plantation areas. Economic engines, ways of life, and moral philosophies changed at the 36th parallel, where the North began.

Today, that divide has vanished. The new political divide is a stark division between cities and what remains of the countryside. Not just some cities and some rural areas, either -- virtually every major city (100,000-plus population) in the United States of America has a different outlook from the less populous areas that are closest to it. The difference is no longer about where people live, it's about how people live: in spread-out, open, low-density privacy -- or amid rough-and-tumble, in-your-face population density and diverse communities that enforce a lower-common denominator of tolerance among inhabitants.

The voting data suggest that people don't make cities liberal -- cities make people liberal. Here, courtesy of Princeton's Robert Vanderbai, is an electoral map that captures the divisions:



The only major cities that voted Republican in the 2012 presidential election were Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, and Salt Lake City. With its dominant Mormon population, Mitt Romney was a lock in the Utah capital; Phoenix nearly voted for Obama. After that, the largest urban centers to tilt Republican included Wichita, Lincoln, Neb., and Boise.

[dlcgopdinosamesame]

1. I live in a Rural Area about 4300 people in my area

when I first moved here 6 years ago the D/R mix was about 50/50 about 125 more registered pubs then Dems..... today there are about 50 more D's then R's which is a gain of 175 D's over 6 years.....Interestingly enough about 200 people died in the area over the same time period with the vast majority dying of old age.

The R's are dying off and they know it.

[Lars39]

3. Are you on dial-up?

Or on slow cable speed?I think that makes a huge difference also.

[marmar]

2. k/r

[TheMightyFavog]

4. Although there are a few rural outliers.

The Driftless area, for one.

http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=17616