Social Explain to me why rural and metropolitan america are so different when it comes to voting.

[Armbars]

City life is alien to many rural folks, they see policies and ideas by politicians who are looking to progress their politics to align with large cities. These Rural people run a mile so to speak, and vote for Conservatives instead.

Its the same here in the UK to.

 

[panamaican]

The lifestyles are extremely different which leads to valuing different things and different priorities.

In urban areas and their suburbs, the density of people means that you're much more likely to influence and be influenced by the choices of others so you perceive your environment as more interconnected. Additionally, community resources are more readily accessed so funding them seems more important to you.

In rural areas, the low population density means that your choices are less likely to impact others and their choices are less likely to impact you. So you perceive the world as more individualistic. This includes community resources - in a city, the fire department might get there in 5 minutes while in a rural area the closest fire department might be 20 minutes away.

So people in the rural areas are going to prioritize policy choices that empower them to solve their own problems however they see fit because the government resources are often too far away to be relied upon regularly. Urban dwellers prefer to fund the government resources since the government fire department is probably more effective at solving their problem than they would be themselves.

And it's not just community resources, in an urban/suburban area you might have 10 mechanics, 5 places to buy groceries, etc. You don't need to worry about fixing your own car or access to a market, there's an over-abundance. By contrast, in the rural area, the closest mechanic might be quite far away and there might be only 1-2 grocery stores. The rural resident is going to want more power to fix their own cars, produce their own food, etc.

Lastly, population density means that urban/suburban residents are more likely to engage strangers on a regular basis. They become accustomed to "outsiders" to a large degree and they become accustomed to sharing space with outsiders. In rural areas, there are fewer "strangers". If there is an outsider there, it makes sense to question why they're there and what they might want.

You combine those things and all the ways they intersect with modern life and it shouldn't surprise anyone that rural and metropolitan areas have very different political outlooks.

 

[Samjj]

No question as to whom Matt Hughes voted for.

 

[welcometohavoc]

First of all im not from the usa, but i have a very little understanding of what are the more "conservative" and "liberal" areas of your country, it does surprise me though of how much the voting patterns are different in the big cities to the countryside, don't get me wrong that does happen in my country as well ( in general the rural parts are more "conservative" everywhere in the world i guess ) but not to the same degree, i was surprised to see the maps where biden won and than i realized he basically only took some cities in this states ( shit i was surprised of how many republicans there were in northern california ) anyway guys, explain to me.

I don't know where you live, but its the same usually everywhere. Take the UK for example. Labour dominates the cities and surrounding constituencies, and the Tories dominate the rural areas for the most part.

Rural folk tend to like things the way they are and Urban folk tend to be more free spirited

 

[MoparOrNoCar]

Uhhh...what?

People in rural areas make way less money than people in metropolitan areas. And rural poverty is higher than metro poverty.

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2016 official poverty rate in rural areas was almost 16 percent compared to just over 12 percent in urban areas."

https://www.irp.wisc.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Focus-34-3c.pdf

These are the kind of easily debunked falsehoods on which Republican rubes rely, though. They also think that rural people's tax dollars are subsidizing cities, when it's the exact opposite there too. For instance, in Illinois, Chicago's citizens get 90 cents for every dollar they put into taxes. Conservative rural downstate taxpayers get $2.50 for every dollar they put into taxes.

You do realize that the population of cities massively outweighs the population of rural areas right?

You debunked nothing other than the fact that you can't math or use logic correctly.

 

[Natural Order]

@Bangkok ready d1 Please see above for the kind of intellectual divide we're talking about.

Obviously, the issue is complicated. But, basically, with the modern economy, the best and brightest from rural areas tend to get advanced degrees and then move into cities where they can get good-paying jobs that require those degrees. Someone from Population-500, Kansas who gets into Harvard to study molecular biology is obviously not likely to ever return to rural life because it doesn't have any of the institutions or employers that need their expertise and can compensation them. So they move to Chicago, or Seattle, or Atlanta, etc.

The result is a brain-drain of sort, where rural America is much less educated and is also much less exposed to the cultural diversity of urban areas. And that cultural and racial diversity scares them very much, it seems.

This intellectual divide has been massively aggravated by the internet age, particularly with rural communities that did not have great internet access until fairly recently. They are not versed in deciphering propaganda from actual reporting, which to be fair is quite difficult and takes a lot of exposure to the internet to really get a hang of things. This has resulted in massive disinformation bubbles forming across rural communities, where large amounts of these communities really believe in outright falsehoods, like that the Clintons are mass murderers, Bill Gates is using vaccines to microchip people, there's an impending white genocide, etc.

Generally accurate assessment.....but LOL @ trying to disuade ideas of elaborate grand narratives of control (derp derp conspiracy theories), while simultaneously espousing the philosophy of a platform that used said control methods to murder 100+ million people. I mean, come on bro!

 

[Trotsky]

You do realize that the population of cities massively outweighs the population of rural areas right?

You debunked nothing other than the fact that you can't math or use logic correctly.

Huh?

Yes, that's correct. What does it have to do with your misstatement that city folks are more poor than rural folks?

FFS, is it impossible for idiots to gracefully admit they were wrong instead of dying on a hill of objectively false claims?

 

[MaxMMA]

Considering how many Sherdogers went "country folks are richer and the only decent human being in the whole country!!!!!!", this is pretty hilarious. You all look down on each other, have a different set of equally arbitrary values and think that you are the only real Americans.

I never said city folks weren't real Americans, you did.

But now that we're on the subject, there does seems to be quite a lot of city dwellers that don't claim their own country as their own. Many of them openly detest the United States.

Which is quite strange considering all the demands your average left city dweller has of the United States and the government.

Liberal rejects - "Fuck the USA, the government, and their oppression of the disenfranchised!

Also liberal rejects - "Let's give unfettered power to the federal government to enter and control the lives of Americans!"

 

[blaseblah]

No question as to whom Matt Hughes voted for.

Or Couture

 

[Sarge3000]

1. Main voting patterns in USA are derived by race, and the racial history deriving each voting pattern. For example the Southern White vote is different than the Northern White vote, etc.
2. Second factor IMO is urbanised communities vs. country type people. Urbanites tend to be less religious, more leftist & liberal. Country people are more religious, more conservative.

That's the general gist of it, then you could go into extreme detail with an entire book detailing voting patterns.

 

[blaseblah]

Very true, I saw quite a few states where most of the surface area was red but Biden still won with one or two cities. Nevada is a good example with Reno and Las Vegas.

If the EC was recalibrated for pure land mass Republicans would win every election easily.

Why would land get to vote over people?

 

[Mike_Tyson_fan36]

LA isn't a large city.

Are you even from America? LA is the 2nd largest city in the country.

 

[Jack V Savage]

People in rural areas tend to make more money and they live there because they just want to enjoy their lives and not be fucked with by people or the government.

Cities have way higher poverty levels, so people tend to vote left because they are relying on the government to better their lives.

Both of these statements are false. Urban incomes are higher, and rural poverty rates are higher.

https://www.census.gov/library/stor...ome-growth-across-united-states-counties.html

It's telling that people can't even attempt a rational response to the question without spewing self-serving BS. And, of course, the prevalence of BS narratives is part of the story here. Another part would be that more division of labor puts more emphasis on metacognition and requires more rational coordination, which requires universalist (as opposed to tribalist) values, which are the essence of liberalism. Good interview here that kind of touches on the issue:

 

[emefer]

Rural Americans are brainwashed by all the right wing hate radio and blasphemous preachers they listen to on the radio.

 

[dirtypablo]

It's only 4 million people. And it's spread out over the size of like multiple counties. USA doesn't have any big cities except maybe NYC.

Wut. USA has multiple cities in the top 100 largest cities by just about any metric.

And the LA city proper is 4 million, but the greater urban area is closer to 15 million.

 

[Rvd Slmr]

I never said city folks weren't real Americans, you did.

But now that we're on the subject, there does seems to be quite a lot of city dwellers that don't claim their own country as their own. Many of them openly detest the United States.

So you didn't say it, but now you did. That's exactly my point : you immediately demonize the other side, who would immediately demonize you too.

 

[Bangkok ready d1]

I don't know where you live, but its the same usually everywhere. Take the UK for example. Labour dominates the cities and surrounding constituencies, and the Tories dominate the rural areas for the most part.

Rural folk tend to like things the way they are and Urban folk tend to be more free spirited

Im brazilian, but yeah the votting patterns here are different for some reasons. First of all we didn't have right wingers here till the last election to be fair ( yeah, thats hard to grasp but we did not have especially on the economical side right wings perspectives in my country till 2010 at least ) the votes here are regionalized more by state than the actual city vs countryside like it seems to be the usa.
For example the northeast region of the country is a lot more conservative than the rest of the country when it comes to their values, but they are also the poorest region, still they vote left wing because the left wingers here used to not go on the post modern aproach on their politics ( they were the classicall marxists of fuck the rich and so on )
On the other hand the southern and southeastern states in brazil aren't nearly as conservative as the northeast part of the country ( yeah even the countryside of this regions aren't really that conservative ) but they usually vote for the right wingers for economical reasons, not really because of their ideals

 

[Bangkok ready d1]

I don't know where you live, but its the same usually everywhere. Take the UK for example. Labour dominates the cities and surrounding constituencies, and the Tories dominate the rural areas for the most part.

Rural folk tend to like things the way they are and Urban folk tend to be more free spirited

Another thing that im starting to think is different between here and the usa is that aparently reading this thread the usa countryside is the place with less educated people and its "poor" compared to the cities. Here in brazil its pretty much the oposite, for historical and governmant reasons the countryside is the most educated place and with less poverty here ( especially the countryside of the south and center of the country, its indeed true that the countryside ot the northeast and north are a lot poorer )

 

[HOLA]

Remember in Grand Theft Auto 5 when you go from Los Santos to Sandy Shores? That's how it really is.

 

[Cuauhtemoc]

The class makeup of the two parties' bases is more fucked up now than at any point in history. Since the Great Depression, the Democrats have generally been the party of the lower classes and middle class, and the Republicans have been the party of the upper middle and upper class. Since 1964, the memberships have shifted to being mostly along the lines of race rather than class. Today, after race, the biggest determinant is education, and then class. The Democrats are the party of educated whites and racial minorities. The Republicans are a party of uneducated whites (which still largely make up the rural middle class) and the rich.

I think that pretty much sums it up. I could add gender is also a relevant factor.
The Republicans/Trump seem to be growing on the macho talk. If I was a Democrat strategist that's something I'd look at, that and the surprising gains Trump made with rural Latinos in South Texas, and I think they're correlated.

 

[HydraCap3]

People in rural areas tend to make more money and they live there because they just want to enjoy their lives and not be fucked with by people or the government.

Cities have way higher poverty levels, so people tend to vote left because they are relying on the government to better their lives.

What they don't understand is the left will never truly better their situation because without the poor, the left doesn't exist. They need people to be poor and they need to keep them in poverty to keep getting reelected. All they do is sell wolf tickets of hopes and dreams but they'll never let you get there because once people make it, they normally start voting right because they don't want the government taking their money away.

you literally have no fucking clue what you're talking about when it comes to rural America.

 

[Metusalemi]

We literally see the world differently. We all have our blind spots.