Why the Liberal/Conservative Split is also an urban/rural split

[R_Flagg_77]

15. Hit the nail on the head...

I've spent time in some major cities, and talked extensively with city-dwellers. I'm a rural person; work on a cattle farm, four-wheel drive, cowboy hat and boots, the works.

The issues of the urban voter are not the issues of the rural voter! As it stands right now, the Democratic Party is doing nothing to address any of my concerns as a national organization; as a state/local organization it serves me fine. But to many around here, the Democratic Party is the party of the city-dweller.

I own an 'military style semi-automatic'; it stays in my gun safe til it's time to put down a dying animal, that is the only use it serves me; (coyotes and other large predators aren't currently an issue for me). Large animal veterinarians are a dying breed, as it is we already have to buy medicines for our animals from a supplier, so calling a vet to put an animal down isn't always an option. Since it is the only firearm I own, this talk of a ban threatens to take away a tool that serves a valuable purpose to both me, and my livestock in our mutual time of need.

That just an example... For another, gas prices hit us harder. In any decent city you could find some form of reliable public transportation to get to work or the store or school. When I was going to community college, I had to drive an hour one way across two counties. The only public transit close to me serves the nearest town, and will not go beyond the town limits. In the next county over, depending on where you live, the closest grocery store is an hour's drive away. We all choose for the most part, to live this lifestyle of isolation, but it was one we were born living. I don't know anything different and I hope I never will know anything else.

I'm grateful for the stability the Federal Farm subsidies provide to the agricultural industry. With so many of my neighbors out of work now the factories and mills here have closed or moved overseas, I'm grateful that there is a social safety net. But I don't give a damn about any other issues... Gay marriage, abortion, or any other 'social justice' issues don't mean anything to me. My concern is the economy, nothing more or less. I want to keep living in a society that allows me to tend to my land and animals and live a prosperous life.

I don't mean to come across as a jerk, I really don't. Yet when people start bad mouthing us 'ignernt hill folk' who choose not to live like caged rats in Boston or Chicago, I can't help but to stand up and say something. Because nine times out of ten you forget something... Who makes your food? If you live along the coast, you might get a fair amount of food right out of the port from overseas; or local fishermen. Yet I'm not aware of any great corn fields in San Francisco, nor of any beef cattle operations on Manhattan Island. Its the rural dweller that produces the bulk of what is offered on the grocery store shelves. Without the farmer in rural America the cities and suburbs will starve.

The population centers are shifting from the rural areas to the urban areas, so you might have a greater voice when the elections come again; but as two sides of the same coin you cannot survive without us, nor we you.