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As for the bright red around the only major city America to have Socialist mayors (Milwaukee), well, that's pretty easy. Milwaukee was as hard-hit by white flight as any city in the country, and remains one of if not THE most segregated cities in America. MKE is very liberal; the suburbs are enthusiastic, entrenched Republican strongholds. The division, in nearly every way you could think of, between the City and the burbs might be more stark than anywhere else.
My grandparents lived their entire life in the city of Milwaukee and were as conservative as they come.
Maybe you could elaborate upon what I said that you disagree with??? Do you disagree that the Midwest is socially conservative, or is it the statement that auto unions and farm subsidies are driving forces behind the sizable democratic voting population.
The Midwest is not some giant monolith. It is not "very socially conservative" everywhere (far from it, in fact), and hunting/gun culture is not big everywhere there.
Mostly, though, I tend to resent that fact that the Midwest gets painted in broad strokes, usually by people that are not even from here.
That republican governor got elected for a reason, at the time of the election more people support his position than support the democratic one. Also I used to live up there and I still lived there when that marriage amendment was passed in the early 2000s. It passed with a HUGE majority. The people I know up there today are very much pro traditional marriage. Now I will acknowledge that none of the people I know up there live in Detroit or Ann Arbor or other liberal strongholds in that state. I am going to guess that if you saw the day of the court edict on gay marriage as a "day of celebration" you must have been near a college or other big liberal community. It has always been a well known fact that Michigan is a relatively socially conservative state on many issues, including the gay issue. I also think its fair to say that the Midwest in general can also be called socially conservative. Most democratic voting there is based on economic issues like support for unions or farm subsidies.
Again, that's really, really, powerfully untrue for a lot of the Midwest.
Milwaukee was as hard-hit by white flight as any city in the country, and remains one of if not THE most segregated cities in America. MKE is very liberal; the suburbs are enthusiastic, entrenched Republican strongholds. The division, in nearly every way you could think of, between the City and the burbs might be more stark than anywhere else.
I thought Detroit had this dubious honor. Almost 100% black in the innermost 90%, it suddenly becomes white at 8 Mile Road (the city limit runs down the middle). The 2 counties to the northwest is very red but everything else is bluish. Though maybe that's because all the autoworkers are unionized and big business is the enemy there. If they hadn't demanded more than the automakers could pay cause people weren't putting up with US cars anymore then maybe they wouldn't take so many jobs to the South where they're non-union and so pay peanuts.
As people have mentioned, the Driftless Effect has been discussed quite a bit since it was perhaps the tipping point for Obama's first election. It is the 2nd biggest organic farming area in the United States (after CA) in terms of raw numbers, but is #1 when you look at per-cap numbers. It's very steep and hilly throughout the region, so farming must be done (often with painstaking contours) on limited ridge-tops and valleys. The soil is very fertile, but it's very difficult to find large swaths of flat land in order to do industrial-scale farms. There are also many Amish (WI has the 4th-highest Amish population in the country, the majority of whom live in the Driftless, and it's growing faster than the first 3), and liberal college-educated towns and cities dot the edges of it (Madison, Twin Cities, Rochester, etc.). Basically, there are ethnic/religious reasons, historical reasons, geographical reasons, a whole host of things coming together for the only large-scale rural white area outside New England that's a Democratic voting block. Additionally, looking at history and ethnic make-up, the Iron Range that makes up parts of Northern MN and NW WI is also a rural white Dem voting block, though much smaller and less populated than the 4-state Driftless one.
As for the bright red around the only major city America to have Socialist mayors (Milwaukee), well, that's pretty easy. Milwaukee was as hard-hit by white flight as any city in the country, and remains one of if not THE most segregated cities in America. MKE is very liberal; the suburbs are enthusiastic, entrenched Republican strongholds. The division, in nearly every way you could think of, between the City and the burbs might be more stark than anywhere else.
Very true, although you can probably attribute the Iron Range's Democratic hx in part to the presence of Duluth, as the rest of the admittedly- large county is basically rural..
I also believe that cities like Rochester, Madison, Dubuque, Davenport, La Crosse certainly provide enough votes to win many of their respective county elections, and thus influence state and national elections.
It's very steep and hilly throughout the region, so farming must be done (often with painstaking contours) on limited ridge-tops and valleys. The soil is very fertile, but it's very difficult to find large swaths of flat land in order to do industrial-scale farms.
Why don't they cut terraces into the hillside like the Chinese? Though it might not be worth it if they can't find a tiller and a planter and a harvester that's about the same width. But they have no-till farming. They could even build walls around the terraces so that the soil doesn't wash away and the lower rainfall of the area doesn't go in the creek.
I thought Detroit had this dubious honor. Almost 100% black in the innermost 90%, it suddenly becomes white at 8 Mile Road (the city limit runs down the middle). The 2 counties to the northwest is very red but everything else is bluish. Though maybe that's because all the autoworkers are unionized and big business is the enemy there. If they hadn't demanded more than the automakers could pay cause people weren't putting up with US cars anymore then maybe they wouldn't take so many jobs to the South where they're non-union and so pay peanuts.
Milwaukee often comes out "ahead" of Detroit in terms of "most segregated" lists. It's usually either Milwaukee, Detroit, or Cleveland. Detroit and Cleveland are similar in effect (suburbs vs "minority" city), but the OP noted Milwaukee, so that's why I answered it specifically. I believe that the Milwaukee suburbs are probably a bit whiter than Detroit's, and I'll bet there is a much stronger black middle class there than in Milwaukee. Basically, it isn't just how black the cities are, it's how white the suburbs are in comparison. All of these 3 cities are sharp contrasts.
Why don't they cut terraces into the hillside like the Chinese? Though it might not be worth it if they can't find a tiller and a planter and a harvester that's about the same width. But they have no-till farming. They could even build walls around the terraces so that the soil doesn't wash away and the lower rainfall of the area doesn't go in the creek.
Terraces are insanely expensive to build from scratch in a developed country. The ones that exist in Europe are a legacy of the feudal era. The only terraced farming you see in the US is for high end wine grapes in California, because it is the only crop that generates enough revenue per acre to justify the expense. If the U of Mn's cold climate grape breeding program ever hits the jackpot and develops a good cold climate wine grape you will see terraces in the driftless, but probably not before.
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