The Border Between Red and Blue America

[elleng]

'With suburbia now split in two parts, we needed a more precise method to distinguish them.

The suburbs are up for grabs.

Anybody who’s paying attention to the 2020 election knows that. But there’s a more fundamental question: Just what are the suburbs anyway?

In a statistical sense, they are surprisingly hard to define.

The United States Census Bureau, the primary source of demographic data, doesn’t offer a lot of insight; it distinguishes only between urban and rural areas.

So The New York Times decided to develop its own method for defining suburbia. From there, we were able to evaluate the demographics and, by extension, the political implications of demographic change.

The key finding: Suburbia should not be considered a distinct entity, but two separate realms. The difference between inner-ring and outer-ring suburbs goes well beyond geography.

In fact, re-examining the 2016 presidential election through that lens, we found that the fault line in party preference was precisely at the boundary between old and new. . .

“Majorities tend to flip from blue to red roughly where commuter suburbs give way to ‘exurban’ sprawl,” wrote Will Wilkinson, a researcher at the libertarian Niskanen Center, in a recent report. “That’s where the political boundary of the density divide is drawn.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/upshot/suburbs-demographics-red-blue.html?

[braddy]

1. How many sub categories of Americans fit on a pin, evidently to infinity.

[silverweb]

2. No surprise.

"In fact, re-examining the 2016 presidential election through that lens, we found that the fault line in party preference was precisely at the boundary between old and new...."

Here's another way of putting it:
"A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling 'Stop!' at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."
-William F. Buckley, Jr.