Why do cities vote Dem and rural areas vote Repub?

[harshthemellow]

What is the driving factor here?

[troublemaker]

1. Rural ethnic homogeneity's one big factor

[DoNotRefill]

56. Huh?!?!

I'm rural, in what's supposed to be a poor-white-trash hillbilly haven. We have a large minority population, lots of African-Americans, Mexicans, El Salvadorans, Vietnamese, Indian (not Amerind, the other kind), and other ethnicities.

Homogeneous? My ass!!!!

[mot78]

2. ....

Urban voters are pro-Union, pro government programs (partly because they are provided with a lot of municipal services) and are quite secular, because they are exposed to a lot of of things. Rural voters are anti-government (probably because they live so far from it) and religious, because of the lack of outsider influence on their values.

[troublemaker]

14. re: Rural voters are anti-government

You are quite right about that and it's comical because they get a much larger slice of the tax money pie than urbanites do.

Do you know when Tim McVeigh started really hating the federal government? When they cut the subsidy he was getting for not planting crops on the family farm. True story.

But we never see Timothy McVeigh described as a welfare queen.

[DoNotRefill]

57. Ummm...I suggest you canvass people...

in rural Appalachia. Anti Government? Anti-union? I don't THINK so...

[Brett Stanton]

3. Isn't it obvious?

Lack of cultural stimulation over generations in flyover country means less appreciation for the way things really are today. Consequently, they vote simplistically, on archaic issues.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Soup Bean]

18. NOT nice.

You'll never convert anyone with flippant remarks like that.

[MikeG]

26. We are kidding around. Its the Lounge. Lighten up.

[MisterP]

28. actually it's GD...

:o

[MikeG]

29. Oops. That's why someone was offended. Um. Sorry.

I'll be very serious here. Uh. I'm going back to the Lounge now.
Sheesh.

[JHBowden]

5. Culture war.

One meets people in the gaybourhood and drives past Hindu temples in urban areas, while rural individuals don't get that exposure.

[NMDemDist2]

6. lots of reasons IMO

people in cities are big on gun control as we see the devastation in the streets
rural folks think guns are for shooting crows and coyotes

City people want good paying jobs and unions
Rural people farm and work on machinery in small shops

city people want fire and police services
rural people ARE the fire service, and see a sheriff twice a week

just a few thoughts

[dogman]

7. Possibly.

cities require more government to maintain the infrastructure and people are more dependent on each other. Rural people are more independent and fearful of the intentions of the government involving itself in their lives. Obviously neither side thinks it through nor do the parties represent the ideas that they were founded on. These days it seems to be more about the perceived left-right split. Old habits are hard to break.

[Egalitarian Zetetic]

8. In the uk the rural areas are far left

in sweeden when they begin the vote count from the north the communist will usually have 20% in scotland they fair well also.

[mot78]

11. Don't forget India!

The Congress Party got most of it's voters from pissed of prinvincials, while Vajpyee's party got votes from people benefitting from the outsroucing of our jobs.

[HootieMcBoob]

30. They would be here to if they weren't so willing to play the chump

Rural folks and poor folks are being had by the Republican party. It's a shame. At least people in the cities have been able to see them for what they really are but everybody else is being taken for a ride. If the citizens from the rural parts of the country and the blue collar workers got together we could really get something happening in this country. Hopefully the scales will fall from their eyes before November and the landslide will come at last.

[billyskank]

59. Are they hell

In the UK rural areas vote solid Tory. Always have, always will. Far left my foot!

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

9. That wasnt the case in Kentucky....

,,,,there was, up through the 1970s at least, alot of rural Democratic voting in large parts of rural Kentucky, with a smilar GOP presence in alot of the mountain and hill-country countys. The division went back to the Civil War, and even before.

[Yupster]

34. Mountain areas of the south

have always been Republican. Goes back to the Civil War.

Not many slaves on the tiny family farms of the hills. Those areas (W Virginia prime example) were largely pro-union during the Civil War.

There were the Johnny Rebs of the valleys and rivers and towns, and the Billy Yanks of the hills. THat's where the name "hillbillies" came from. They were the pro-union guys who lived in the hills.

[CityZen-X]

10. Dain Bamage!

from falling off of their horses, and landing on their chins!

[Cleita]

12. I have a different take on it. Rural people are usually left to

fend for themselves. If there is any ambulance service, clinic, fire department type of stuff going on is because it's volunteer and the people who do it are the same people who live there. Republican politicians come along and tell them the Democrats are going to tax them and the rural people who live hand to mouth believe it.

They also believe they are going to take their guns away from them and change their way of life. I find a lot of bad types have arrived in rural communities with religious mantras and hatred of liberal elitists and they convince them that anyone who doesn't read the bible is immoral. Hence the gay, abortion debacle.

The real agenda of these Repukes is to buy as much of the real estate as they can for a bargain price, make as much money as they can from the natural resources and make sure that everyone who works for them is so underpaid that they can't survive without them.

[Alerter_]

41. the real estate factor

"The real agenda of these Repukes is to buy as much of the real estate as they can for a bargain price, make as much money as they can from the natural resources and make sure that everyone who works for them is so underpaid that they can't survive without them."

You are absolutely right about that.

[Karenina]

62. Check out those

Real Estate a$$ets held by Carlyle! :wow:

[cally]

13. Much of it is demographics

Minorities and singles vote more democratic. A larger percentage of them live in urban areas. Rural voters are more white. Also, I would guess church attendance is higher in rural areas.

[NMDemDist2]

25. don't know if I can go along with the rural whites thing

lots of blacks in the rural south

[kayell]

61. True, and if you look at a red/blue map of SC for instance, you will see

that the rural counties in the lower-mid part of the state that are mostly black vote dem.

[Yupster]

35. The church is the central social magnet

in rural areas.

It's where you see your neighbors and the young adults meet their spouses. The dad is on the church basketball team, and the mom is on the social committees.

[SOteric]

15. Another factor is intellect

Academics and intellectuals tend to vote Democratic tickets and be concerned with Democratic and progressive causes, and also to live in large cities.

Please understand, I know some really brilliant people who've chosen to live a quiet, rural life. But in large, messy generalisations, they are the exception and not the rule in the U.S.

[Yupster]

38. I grew up in New York City

Now I live in West Texas. I didn't realize I got stupidier when I moved.

[SOteric]

48. I spoke of tendencies,

and specifically elucidated exceptions. Please don't be offended where no offense was intended.

I know a great many exceptions to the generalisation. But in the broad demographic, more career opportunities, academic possibilities and social construct are available to intellectuals in large cities.

By no means does one lose intelligence by moving into a rural area, and by no means is everyone found in a large city of impressive academic credential.

[QC]

16. The sort of smirking condescension on display in this thread

and elsewhere might have something to do with it. That kind of thing certainly gives life to the Rushbot stereotype of liberals as know-it-alls who look down on "people like us."

It's important to keep in mind, too, that rural people were traditionally populist, which I guess we could describe as "fiscally liberal," but culturally somewhat conservative. They appreciated things like TVA and the Department of Agriculture and Social Security, but have always tended to be fairly religious. Now that both parties are so much alike on economics, cultural issues are the game, and, unfortunately for us, that game gives the Republicans an advantage in rural and small town America.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

19. good post.

opening up rural politics and voting will demonstrate there are nuances to this "Rural=GOP"/"City=Democrat" equation, which I agree is too simplistic.

[Soup Bean]

22. You nailed it.

Most folks LOVE government grants. I live in small town America, and it's mostly God, Guns and Gays that cost Democrats votes. Sad, but true.

[RoyGBiv]

17. This is a generalization...

And, sad to say, it reflects a lot of bias.

In Oklahoma, for example, the rural southeast and east votes Democratic more often than Republican. The two major urban areas, Tulsa and OKC, are solidly Republican.

The same is true in many parts of the South and Midwest.

[El Supremo]

20. Educational Differences

Face it, public education has suffered for a long time in rural America.

[styersc]

21. Urbanites live in close proximity to each other and realize

that order, in a high population situation, is increased with well regulated laws. Good fences make good neighbors and in high population living conditions, laws are fences.

Rural dwellers are still living the myth of the rule of the west. They think that laws are evil and they make their own rules.

[AgentLadyBug]

23. rural areas are largely filled with racist idiots....

... at least, insofar as rural areas are filled with anything...

back before civil rights, and the great dem-repub-switcharoo, i think rural areas voted basically dem.

[QC]

24. Did they have a special on broad brushes down at Tru Valu today? n/t

[EstimatedProphet]

31. Good reply

There is a lot of, shall we say, "haughtyness" in this thread so far. Let's put it in perspective-when I worked in the DC area I ran into a lot of people that were, for lack of a better word, socially/emotionally inept. By the reasoning from some of these posts I could say that it's because cities attract retarded people.
I'm not from a big city. I'm from a small town, and I live in a small town. I reject the broad brush of "non-city people are simplistic".

[QC]

32. Thanks. It's amazing how discussions of rural people here always

end up as, "Gee, I wonder why these slope-browed, sister-fucking, roadkill-eating genetic throwbacks don't like us?"

Well, people tend not to like those who hold them in contempt. That's why "let's joke about the rubes" is a really bad political strategy.

[AgentLadyBug]

42. that's right folks, keep pretending the elephant in the room isn't there..

[DoNotRefill]

54. LOL!!!

nice description!!!! :)

[harshthemellow]

27. What is the ratio of normal / racists in cities vs rural?

I'd guess that there are more racists in a city of several million than there are racists in a town of hundreds.

[QC]

33. What about the LAPD's shenanigans?

Rampart, anyone?

I'll never forget the news coverage after the L.A. riots, all those nice, affluent white people professing such shock to learn that the black and brown people of their city could have been so resentful. Didn't they know that racism only exists out in the country and down south?

[LoZoccolo]

36. Oops.

I replied to the wrong thing.

[DoNotRefill]

55. Skinheads would get their asses kicked in a rural area....

by those God-fearing folks who think of Nazis as the folks their daddys got to go overseas to waste at government expense.

I've seen plenty of skinheads in urban areas, but I've never seen one in a rural area.

[DoNotRefill]

53. I take offense at that.

I encountered far more racism in the major urban area that I used to live in than I have in the rural area that I now reside in.

[LoZoccolo]

37. Let this thread sink.

It's a lame attempt to invoke a "two minutes hate" against rural people and then show it off to right-wingers.

[oscar111]

39. Zetetic:Knights of Labor

1. zetetic, pls tell us why the brit, swede, and scot rurals are far left? {ps, pls note what i also used to do... sweeden wrong, sweden right}

2. who can tell us why the 1885 or thereabouts Knights of Labor union had all the farmers joining? It was so popular they had to limit how many could join! And, why did it disappear?

3. this is a GREAT theory thread, rare on DU. Prithee, do not sink it.
oscar

[LoZoccolo]

40. I think that it could be a good thread...

...without all the stereotyping (and you bring up some interesting history that falls outside of that) - but I still think that's what it was for. Notice the author has been tombstoned.

[oscar111]

43. Tombstoned? define pls ... and

how can one tell? some symbol?

[QC]

44. Click on its profile and you'll see. n/t

[oscar111]

45. Profile? u mean the writer's profile? which tiny symbol is it/

symbols too tiny to figure out. pls help.

[QC]

46. The one that looks like a person's head. n/t

[oscar111]

47. thanks! Also, why it happens in general?

I think i looked for it long long ago, and could not find it in FAQ etc. Why it happens? Did eg, this poster on rural vs city, appear in some other post, to be definitely a troublemaking freeper?

[QC]

49. It's what happens to trolls.

I have no way of knowing which post did it, though, and the admins don't comment on such things.

[LoZoccolo]

51. Click on the little "head" icon by their name.

You'll normally see a person's profile, and it will have a tombstone on it if they were banned.

[War Pigs]

50. Cuz it's harder to swim outside your own gene pool in the sticks

:bounce:

[DoNotRefill]

52. guns, no other reason.

Of course, pro-gun Democrats tend to do well in rural areas here, even better than pro-gun Republicans.

My congressman is a pro-gun Democrat. If he were an anti-gun Democrat, he wouldn't be my congressman, or even dog catcher.

[thecrow]

58. It's simple: Cities do not have trailer parks. eom

[Hubert Flottz]

60. Cause Al Gore will take their guns!

Moses said so and the idiots believed it!

[Moderator]

63. Locking.....

The author is no longer with us.


DU Moderator