If The Dems Made A Concerted Effort To Appeal To Rural Voters What Would You Recommend They Do?....

[Xithras]

377. Uhh...no. Census numbers are horribly misleading.

The census departments definition of "rural" and the common definition of "rural" are not the same thing. Prior to 2000, the census defined "urban" as any populated area with 50,000 people or more, or any unincorporated but developed area with 2,500 people or more. Starting with the 2,000 census, they eliminated the population floors entirely.

The definition of "urban" is now any area, irregardless of physical size, with a population density ratio equal to 1000 people per square mile (or 2.5 square meters per person), and as low as 500 people per square mile in some instances. More importantly, they introduced a longer "jump" distance of 2.5 miles...if you have a small enclave at position x, and another enclave at position y two miles down the road, you can exclude the land between the enclaves and combine the two enclaves into one for density calculation purposes.

The result of this is simple. A tiny village of 20 small houses, completely surrounded by farmland, is now considered "urban"...even though no urbanite would EVER look at the village that way. Even if you look to some of the larger ones, the designation doesn't make sense. I literally stuck my finger on a map and found the town of Moberly Missouri a few moments ago. Ever heard of Moberly? Me neither, but according to Google it's a fairly disbursed community in the Missouri farm country. Thanks to the census "hopping" system, in spite of the fact that Moberly is about as "small town America" as you can find nowadays, it still officially has a population of 13,940 people in a designated area of 11.6 square miles. That gives it a population density of 1201 people per square mile. In other words, according to the Census Bureau, Moberly Missouri is just as "urban" as Manhattan, with it's 60k+ people per square mile density.

So that 19% number is pretty much pointless. The only way to qualify is to actually LIVE on your farm, or to live in a cabin out in the woods somewhere. That excludes the MAJORITY of family farmers around my own home who don't actually live on their land (most farmers around here live in small towns so their kids will be closer to schools and stuff). It also excludes nearly everyone in America who actually lives in a small towns and farming communities, because 1000 people per square mile is LESS THAN TWO PEOPLE PER ACRE.