Someone explain why cities are mostly Dem and rural areas are mostly Repub

[MaidinVermont]

I live in podunk Vermont and mopse everyone I know votes repub while nearly all the city folks vote Dem. What's up with that?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. Urban Folks

rely more on governmental services...


Rural folks are more independent.....


Also, rural folks are much more homogeneous...

[HornBuckler]

3. When You Say Rely On Services

What Do You Mean Exactly? Do You Believe It Is The City That Attracts People That Need Services To It? Or Are These People A Product Of The City Itself?

Just Wondering

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. A Combination Of Both...

but as a group gets larger the need for organization grows...



That's the flaw in liberterianism....

[harper]

4. Actually, rural America gets lots of goverment money

If you factor in the government money that goes to farmers, rural counties rate pretty high on the government spending lists. And, there are poor mothers on ADC just like in the big bad cities. I think there was a map that went around after the 2000 elections that tracked government spending vs voting records of the population. The states that went for the Democrats paid more in taxes than they got back in government spending. The states that went Republican (rural/western states) got more money in government spending that they paid out in taxes.

So, like Maine Mary says...why are they all republican? I think its because they want their government money, but they don't want to see anyone else (read urban minorities)to get a dime.

[RobertSeattle]

8. Thank you thank you thank you

I couldnt' have written it better.

[izzie]

12. I would say it is more like this....

They like to think THINK they are doing it on their own. I have heard the talk and they are not looking at what they really are doing. They also like to think they are the true Americans when they are not. Hard to give up the belief that it is a white prot. country when it is not any more.

[joefree1]

23. It never was

"Hard to give up the belief that it is a white prot. country when it is not any more."

Most of our founding fathers were Diest not Christian. America has a rich tradition of religious individuality until around 1950. Then rural evengelical movements from the South started to move our country towards intolerant fundamentalism.

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

[izzie]

26. But that is who ran the country untill about the '50

We may have had a lot of others in the country but look at who could vote and who ran the gov state to state and fed. It was a WASP society

[ikojo]

17. There is also MUCH poverty in rural areas

As a result of that poverty many, many people in rural areas also receive government services such as food stamps, medicaid and heating assistance. Don't for a minute believe that it is only the people in the "cities" who receive government assistance.

This idea of rural people being less dependent on government borders on the freeperish. It basically says, "rural people good strong Americans!" City people, "weak and dependent."

[tsipple]

25. Um, No

Rural areas receive net inflows of tax dollars. Rural folks are prime beneficiaries of the welfare state. Everything from farm subsidies to AFDC to food stamps to rural electrification to highways to police protection. And more.

[HornBuckler]

2. I've Often Wondered This Myself

There Sure Isn't A Cut And Dry On This One - But I Believe There Are A Few Undisputable Factors - For One, Large Cities Usually Have A Large Number Of Racial And Ethnic Diversities - With So Many People Of Different Backgrounds And Faiths The "Traditionalism" Found In Rural Areas, Erodes To A More Homogenius Respect (Or Atleast Tolerance) For Each Other - Conservatives Tend To Fear Change As Well, And Small Cities See Little Change - But Again, Your Question Is Loaded - There Are Plenty Of Large Conservative Cities In The US (Mostly - Err Probably All) In The South - And That Plays Into Other Factors (religion/Etc)

I'm Sure Someone Else Here Has A Much Better Explanation

[Mari333]

5. Lack of education,, lack of cultural and geographical literacy

Ive lived in the city and live in a rural area now...poverty, lousy schools, 5 dollar an hour jobs...basically, many rural folks here rely on sound bytes from Faux news and the National Enquirer to get their news. Im not kidding. I worked in a small supermarket here for a year, and the break room was loaded with Enquirer magazines and worldnetdaily rags..I dragged in a ton of National Geographics and left them there in hopes that someone might read them..they didnt last, someone threw them out. I spoke with some of my co workers, who told me they literally could not read at all, or were unaware of what was going on outside their small isolated community..
They were amazed that I had even gone to Europe, and asked me where it was. This is all true. The US electorate is remarkably in the dark in many rural areas.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

9. poverty, lousy schools, 5 dollar an hour jobs

Erm sounds just like the Inner City.

[izzie]

13. It is both I fear. Poor workers inner city and country

n/t

[bearfartinthewoods]

11. poverty, lousy schools, 5 dollar an hour jobs

and this doesn't happen in the cities?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. If They Have Lousy Schools

why do mostly rural states like Iowa and Idaho have the highest SAT scores?

[OldSoldier]

21. Small towns are more closely-knit than larger communities

The conservatives like to laugh at that old African saw "it takes a village to raise a child." No it doesn't, they say, it takes a family to raise a child.

Then you go to Idaho, where I grew up, and you can see the concept in action. A little town "raises up its young'uns" in a way that a large town never will.

Quick assignment for all: Go to your local video emporium, purchase The Music Man, and watch it about five times. When Professor Harold Hill stands up before the community to proclaim that the pool table the mayor's installing in his billiard parlor will destroy the youth of River City, the townsfolk believe. They listen. They buy into his boys' band because their children--and all of the children of River City are everyone's children--must remain pure. Now, considering that cigarettes were illegal in the state, how the young men could have been tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out Cubebs, tryin' Tailor Mades like cigarette fiends I really don't know, but there ya are. Could Professor Harold Hill have gone to Chicago and sold a boys' band? I think not; the "village" isn't there to the same extent.

[displacedtexan]

6. from my demographer spouse...

number of minorities in cities. actually, LA isn't a 'city' the way NYC is: it's a number of individual suburbs with no viable 'downtown' where people live.

hope this helps.

[CoffeePlease1947]

7. It has to do with pandering to the people

Republicans pander to the needs and interests of the people that live out in the country side.

Democrats pander to the poor, minorities, and those that need city services.

Go out to the country side and you will find that they are less orienated to different types of people and hate paying taxes because they don't see the government services because they are out of town.

Also people out in the country general have social lives organized around church activities. This centers their focus against social programs and more around religion. One party preaches less taxes and high moral values. The other party panders to more social programs and diviersity. That is most of your difference.

There are lots of other little factors too. Education, income, religion, race, background, family, friends, age, and individual circumstances.

Mike

[izzie]

16. I think their is alot of truth there.

These whites in the country do like to think they are the 'true' americans. I may be here for ever and white but I do not see my self as any better an american than anyone else but I will say many do.When their parents were voting the GOP was the party of the country folks so many just stay with it. Many see Bush as the family man of that old party. Low taxes, smaller gov. and lets face it, it is not this new party at all.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. I've not found this to be the case

When I lived in Illinois, I was a resident of Champaign-Urbana, one of the large urban centers in that state (fifth largest city, I think, when I lived there in the 60s). Well, except for the University of Illinois campus, the town was solidly Republican-and had been since the party was founded in 1856! When I grew up, I moved to Southern Illinois, to a rural area, where everyone (and I mean everyone) was a yellow dog Democrat. Now I live in AR, in the most rural county, and it is mostly Democrat and one of the most liberal counties in the state. The next county to the north, which actually has a town worthy of the name, is conservative Republican.

So, in my experience, the urben/Democrat, rural/Republican doesn't hold true.

[dofus]

18. One aspect of the

rural Republican, city Democrat split (as many exceptions to that as there are) has to do with union membership. Union members are more likely to see themselves (correctly) as working class and to clearly understand that their interests are quite different from those of the ruling Republican elite.

What distresses me, and has for at least twenty years, is how the connection between taxes paid and services provided has been lost on many people. Republicans (and Libertarians are even worse in this regard) seem to think that taxes can be cut and cut and cut and services not affected. Libertarians think everything should be privatized. (I'm simplifying somewhat, I know)

I lived in Minneapolis some twenty years back, and it was a marvel of good schools, clean public areas, fantastic parks. I worked with a bunch of recent transplants from Texas, who in one breath would complain about high taxes, and in the next comment favorably on just those good schools, clean public areas, and fantastic parks. They never did (in the short time I worked with them) ever seem to get the connection between taxes paid and services provided.

[izzie]

27. Well that happened in York Maine also

Small town became bed room town for Boston and the Mass people moved in and made the town three times bigger they also wanted side walks, street lights, walking postmen, and every city service but at low tax cost and it could not be done. Now a native can not buy in the town as it has been taking over with all the high taxes and made into a small city but with no tax base to pay for it but property.No one wanted big business to move in as it would not be that small town in Maine they were looking for, change means just that, change. Something has to give, and it did.

[ikojo]

19. Welcome to DU MaidinVermont!!!

Keep on posting!!

:toast:


:hi:

[Classical_Liberal]

20. Vermont and most of the North was republican

when republicans were liberal. It is tradition is those areas. Those rural people aren't conservatives, though they maynot be liberals. Look at Jim Jeffords. The rural south became republican as a result of Nixon's Southern strategy. The Southern Strategy killed republican liberalism.

[ShaneGR]

22. A lot more dependence on government

And I don't mean welfare or anything like that, statistics show that per capita more people are wholly dependent on government aid to survive in rural areas then urban.

I mean dependent on mass transit. Dependent on their school systems. Dependent on complicated government programs to keep the urban economy working properly. etc. etc. etc.

[moondust]

24. Bush and Reagan are "cowboys".

Both have tried to pass themselves off as the Marlboro Man. A lot of rednecks and country critters relate to the pro-gun message and the western imagery even if it is fake.

Of course Poppy Bush didn't pretend to be a cowboy and he only got one term on Reagan's coattails.

[Festivito]

28. I'm thinking the media diversity is less rurally.

Airwave space is being purchased by "christians" (small-c) in the name of diversity, but, the real intent has been to keep NPR and competing stations out.

[Avalux]

29. It's about GUNS

From my father:

People who live in rural areas, especially in the northeast are hunters. They own guns and believe they have the right to own them. Any sort of gun control is out of the question. This is the biggest single issue in the area where I grew up. They believe Democrats want to take their guns away.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

30. Look at this map of Calif.

Someone suggested to me that this is because there are "more people" in the coastal and urban areas of California, but that doesn't explain percentages.

I think Democrats in rural areas tend to be much more moderate, even conservative. At least in California.

I'm proud to live in one of those red areas, but I know the real work to be done is in the other areas. Bakersfield, here I come!