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Back in the day liberals were "earthy"... not any more. I see more land purchases by highly successful urbanites than farmers or ranchers these days.
Not always a bad thing since these folks have no intention of converting the land from agricultural to low density housing.
Living in a city is more ecofriendly and reduces your carbon footprint by a stark percentage. Liberals are also much more likely to be vegan/vegeterian. Those two factors are the single biggest factors in being "Earthy".
However, I will give you.. less and less progressive folk are directly working with gardening and growing crops or whatever the case may be. I don't know what the reason may be... but that could be a reason why liberal rural areas are on the decline. The urban environment might be more appealing for said group which would retire the hobby of gardening and stuff.
Progressives don't like getting their soft delicate hands dirty. However, the ole hippie chick near me loves her geese, and yard birds ... seems to love guano. Now she's raising Alpacas.
She has some good looking vegetables and hemp, with all that fertilizer.
It has changed considerably just in the 8 years I have been here. There are so many outsiders moving here for reasons other than LU (large nuclear operations and development sector here with BWXT and Framatome both headquartered in Lynchburg, Centra Hospital growing like crazy, Pacific Life opening their east coast HQ here, lots of retirees moving here, three other colleges here that are also growing, and lots of young professionals moving here for reasons not related to LU like myself). The demand from all these newcomers has increased substantially the desire for more nightlife and a better bar scene and developers have responded without any impedance from LU (especially in the downtown area).
Now we have three breweries underway downtown (Starr Hill, Three Roads, and Champion) opening this Summer, a second rooftop bar and lounge opening this Summer on the Bluffwalk (other is at the newly built Virginian Hotel), a great new live music venue with full bar The Glass House downtown that brings in performances from Asheville, Austin, and DC, and two new wine bars underway downtown opening this Summer as well. Lots of new taphouses have opened here recently like The Water Dog, Bootleggers, and Brauburgers. We also have LGBTQ friendly bars like Dish now. Many bars are open till 1 or 2 AM downtown now and you can legit do a bar crawl which was not possible just a few years ago. Some bars like Rendez Vous have DJ's every weekend with great cocktails and music till around 2 AM. There is such a mix of people now not affiliated with Liberty the entire vibe has changed completely. El Jefe downtown is also open to 1 AM and has a really great selection of tequila shots and margaritas.
Also, the mayor, city manager, and most of city council have been pretty critical of Liberty here in the past couple of years. Check out this statement from the mayor condemning Falwell's decision to reopen campus during COVID-19: https://www.lynchburgva.gov/news/may...burg-community
Outside of Libertyworld, Lynchburg is actually a fairly progressive place these days, especially compared to all the counties around it which a lot of outsiders don't realize. The city went for Kaine in 2018 and has a majority Democratic City council, including Beau Wright who worked for 8 years in the White House under the Obama Administration and an African American woman as mayor.
Wow the area has changed a lot then!! It actually sounds a lot more hip now than Charleston WV which used to be liberal and permissive in comparison both in my experience and in the experience of two of my friends with experience in both places. Southern West Virginia is still very conservative today. I've since returned to my home state Louisiana which to me has an air of permissiveness. West Virginia has always been relative conservative, but once the Democrats started going after the coal industry is when they lost that state. Similar issues exist here in Louisiana with the oil and gas industry.
However, I will give you.. less and less progressive folk are directly working with gardening and growing crops or whatever the case may be. I don't know what the reason may be... but that could be a reason why liberal rural areas are on the decline. The urban environment might be more appealing for said group which would retire the hobby of gardening and stuff.
I'd say the general decline of rural America over the past 20-30 years has a lot to do with that but this may change post-COVID-19. A significant increase in telework options is sure to be a shot in the arm for many rural areas.
I wouldn't categorize most college towns as "rural". Would you consider Athens, Ga or Columbia, Mo or Iowa City or Madison, Ws or Bloomington, In to be rural?
Yes, most on this list, I would consider as rural. I have been to pretty much most of these college towns (not to Athens GA, but I have been to Athens, OH) -- they are all surrounded by rural areas. Sure you won't say Bloomington is rural per se, but as soon as you leave it you realize you are in the middle of rural Indiana. Smaller college towns such as Athens OH feel rural even more so than Bloomington. I would say Madison WI is not in the same league as the rest of the college towns you mentioned. Probably because Madison is not just a city, it's a capital of the state so it's bigger, has its own airport, etc.
Living in a city is more ecofriendly and reduces your carbon footprint by a stark percentage. Liberals are also much more likely to be vegan/vegeterian. Those two factors are the single biggest factors in being "Earthy".
However, I will give you.. less and less progressive folk are directly working with gardening and growing crops or whatever the case may be. I don't know what the reason may be... but that could be a reason why liberal rural areas are on the decline. The urban environment might be more appealing for said group which would retire the hobby of gardening and stuff.
Where do you see this mostly? I'm genuinely interested. I now live in Durham NC, and there are lots of rural liberal areas around here. We have a couple small towns (Hillsboro, Saxapawhaw) around here that seem to have a high percentage of hippies growing and selling their food. CSAs are pretty popular here. When we signed up last fall we had a big list to choose from both meat and vegetable CSAs. Farmer Markets of Chapel Hill, Durham and Carrboro consistently have an amazing number of local farmers. Carrboro farmers market doesn't even allow anyone who doesn't grow their food within 50 miles of the town... so it's super local stuff. I get most of my food through CSA or co-ops and they seem to do very well here. I know it may not sound that important for some people but being able to buy flour from a local mill seems amazing to me. This area has been great for me so far in terms of variety of good quality local food that's grown by eco-conscious/health-conscious people.
So, yes, I'd say that the smaller towns around Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of NC seem to be a "rural hippie" magnet.
Last edited by HatchChile; 05-28-2020 at 02:13 PM..
Reason: grammar and words
Where do you see this mostly? I'm genuinely interested. I now live in Durham NC, and there are lots of rural liberal areas around here. We have a couple small towns (Hillsboro, Saxapawhaw) around here that seem to have a high percentage of hippies growing and selling their food. CSAs are pretty popular here. When we signed up last fall we had a big list to choose from both meat and vegetable CSAs. Farmer Markets of Chapel Hill, Durham and Carrboro consistently have an amazing number of local farmers. Carrboro farmers market doesn't even allow anyone who doesn't grow their food within 50 miles of the town... so it's super local stuff. I get most of my food through CSA or co-ops and they seem to do very well here. I know it may not sound that important for some people but being able to buy flour from a local mill seems amazing to me. This area has been great for me so far in terms of variety of good quality local food that's grown by eco-conscious/health-conscious people.
So, yes, I'd say that the smaller towns around Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of NC seem to be a "rural hippie" magnet.
Yeah there is a lot of that in Asheville as well for sure. I've never seen as many chicken coops in people's backyards as well some of the biggest most well taken care of edible gardens than in my parents neighborhood of West Asheville which is also extremely liberal. All around the outskirts of Asheville in places like Woodfin, Montreat, Black Mountain, Weaverville, Mills River, and Brevard are hippie progressive farmers and gardeners that specialize in organic and farm to table products. Really great place IMO! Co-ops are also big there too.
The Driftless Area that covers parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois is one of the more liberal rural areas in the US. It never developed large-scale commercial agriculture or manufacturing due to the hilly topography, so the economy is mostly comprised of small family farms and the universities in the area. Organic Valley and GoMacro are both headquartered there.
There is a long history of conservationists and hippies being attracted to the area. Aldo Leopold, the first wildlife ecologist in the US, is from the area. Frank Lloyd Wright was also born and had his studio there.
Interesting, though I'm not entirely surprised. For some reason, I consider Wisconsin and Iowa to be more liberal than one would immediately think. Both states have highly educated populations, and they seem to hold views more liberal than the Republicans they vote for, if that makes sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewjdeg
It's all relative. The American South is maybe the most conservative place in the entire developed world. Even the most far-right parties Europe support some kind of universal healthcare. Of course black southerners are not as conservative as white southerners, but pretty much everyone in America is to the left of white southerners.
Democrats happen to have a wider tent when it comes ideology, so conservative Democrats like John Bel Edwards - who is strongly anti-abortion by the way - are accepted in the party; that's just a fact, Democrat does not imply liberal.
I agree with most of this, but not entirely with the bolded.
There are plenty of stereotypically conservative "rednecks" in rural and semi-rural areas of "blue" Northern states. Michigan, where I lived for 14 years, is a perfect example. Heck, coming from the Toronto, Ontario area, I found suburban Detroit to be unbelievably conservative. Almost any "blue' state (Vermont might be an outlier) has no shortage of very right-wing conservatives and Trump supporters. And Democrats who aren't very liberal.
Yes, conservatism is relative, but so is liberalism.
With that said, I'm with the other posters who include Vermont, Western Mass, maybe CT, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, CO as states with rural liberal areas. I suspect New Mexico has some pretty liberal rural areas, as well.
You want to know where a huge population of rural liberals live -- if the discussion isn't confined to the US? Canada. From the West coast to the East coast. And, contrary to how a couple of posters describe rural liberal areas in the US, rural Canada is almost entirely white.
Rural Canadians might prefer to live in quieter, more remote areas with what they perceive as good family values, they might hunt and fish, they may have grown up in families that own firearms (hunting rifles, not handguns), and they might very well prefer to drive pickup trucks.
But they unanimously believe in Canada's universal healthcare system that doesn't leave people struggling financially if they get sick (as they see the US's healthcare system do), and they almost all believe in some form of gun control. These are just a couple of examples of liberal policies they take for granted.
Rural areas right across Canada are almost 100% "liberal" by US standards.
There's actually many places surprisingly enough. Off the top of my head:
Buncombe County NC
Wautauga County NC
Clarke County GA
Montgomery County VA
Charles County MD
Tompkins County NY
Monroe County IN
Story County IA
Jackson County IL
San Miguel County CO
Costilla County CO
Tompkins County is where Ithaca is located and even some the more rural areas there like Trumansburg, Newfield, parts of the town of Ithaca(different from the city of), Enfield and Lansing would fit.
A radio station in the area that would appeal to those that identify with the topic: https://www.wrfi.org/
Interesting, though I'm not entirely surprised. For some reason, I consider Wisconsin and Iowa to be more liberal than one would immediately think. Both states have highly educated populations, and they seem to hold views more liberal than the Republicans they vote for, if that makes sense.
I agree with most of this, but not entirely with the bolded.
There are plenty of stereotypically conservative "rednecks" in rural and semi-rural areas of "blue" Northern states. Michigan, where I lived for 14 years, is a perfect example. Heck, coming from the Toronto, Ontario area, I found suburban Detroit to be unbelievably conservative. Almost any "blue' state (Vermont might be an outlier) has no shortage of very right-wing conservatives and Trump supporters. And Democrats who aren't very liberal.
Yes, conservatism is relative, but so is liberalism.
With that said, I'm with the other posters who include Vermont, Western Mass, maybe CT, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, CO as states with rural liberal areas. I suspect New Mexico has some pretty liberal rural areas, as well.
You want to know where a huge population of rural liberals live -- if the discussion isn't confined to the US? Canada. From the West coast to the East coast. And, contrary to how a couple of posters describe rural liberal areas in the US, rural Canada is almost entirely white.
Rural Canadians might prefer to live in quieter, more remote areas with what they perceive as good family values, they might hunt and fish, they may have grown up in families that own firearms (hunting rifles, not handguns), and they might very well prefer to drive pickup trucks.
But they unanimously believe in Canada's universal healthcare system that doesn't leave people struggling financially if they get sick (as they see the US's healthcare system do), and they almost all believe in some form of gun control. These are just a couple of examples of liberal policies they take for granted.
Rural areas right across Canada are almost 100% "liberal" by US standards.
That is completely accurate. I know a lot of folks that vote almost exclusively for Republicans that are very pro-marijuana legalization, in favor of removing big money from elections, in favor of investing heavily in education/health care/EMS/infrastructure. However, the two most important things to them are abortion and guns, so they keep voting for Republicans because of those two issues, and most Iowa Republican politicians keep very close to the party platform despite the majority of their constituents being in favor of more liberal positions on a majority of issues.
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