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Progress vs Tradition and Group Rights vs Individual Rights are the two biggest divides in the US.
Rural areas tend to value tradition meaning you have people who live on the same land their great-great-grandparents lived in or having people that attended the same school or church for generations. Meaning that ideas and beliefs are passed on from generation to generation. Rural areas that are not tourists based on near a major interstate especially tend to see these ideas pass on through the generations and you just don't have a lot of fresh or modern ideas coming to replace those. These areas sometimes will experience a brain drain as younger people head off to college and decide not to come back to their rural area. Which leaves older people and therefore those traditions intact.
Donald Trump has done a very solid job of recruiting those people. The whole slogan "Make America Great Again" resonates with people who live in rural America who have those same traditions and are concerned that they are losing their idea of America right before their very eyes.
Urban areas are often more diverse. You have a variety of people who have a variety of life experiences from being a refugee to escaping their small rural area to everything in between. The population density is greater and the diversity is greater. These areas aren't strictly white there is quite a bit of diversity and you have to learn to live with that if you want to have a rewarding life in the city. Cities tend to be more leading-edge so they are much more on the progress side of the progress vs tradition argument so, therefore, more liberal.
Haven't read the whole thread so sorry if this has been mentionned already.
It is the same in France (won't say Europe because I haven't searched any data).
While what american citizens consider far left the democrat party is funny to us, since they'd be at least center right here, I think and have observed that in big and medium sized cities, people live together and often well, so prejudice isn't as prevalent.
Here, it is mostly small villages and countryside that vote extreme right, while having next to none immigrants or of immigrant descent. They FEAR what TV tells them.
I live in a region that has the most voters for extreme right, but in a big city. In Nice, FN is lower than nationnally. Same when I lived in Paris.
When people live together, they learn how to interact. And Nice is a right-wing city (not the same as your GOP of course) and people vote for efficient politicians. I was born in the second richest city in my country, the mayor has four terms behind him and was elected at first turn a few months ago, he's labelled as communist party. He does a great job and is re-elected every 6 years.
I'm as leftist as you can fear and locally, I stil vote for this right wing mayor. Why? He does a good job, even though he embarrasses himself evey time he adresses national issues.
The problem isn't the politics, it's living together and stop being afraid.
That is pretty much what we are starting to see in the US. The rural/countryside areas vote far-right because those areas rely heavily on tradition and they don't have fresh ideas via immigrants or world eduction coming into those areas. It is easy for someone to come in and say look these people want to come in and make your traditions extinct and that usually springs them to a paranoid state of action.
I did nothing of the kind. Take off your blinders. The either low-income or super rich (Hollywood, Tech C-Suiters, etc.) dichotomy is a Dem thing. Look at Food Stamps, for example. More than 2 to 1 Dems to Republicans:
Should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that Dems are more poor than Republicans and more obese, since Food Stamp recipients, as a group, have the highest obesity rate according to USDA data.
Median wage and up is predominantly Republican, despite the super rich Dems.
"Interestingly, the median household income in the United States is right near the point where the Democratic advantage disappears and the Republicans take over."
I did nothing of the kind. Take off your blinders. The either low-income or super rich (Hollywood, Tech C-Suiters, etc.) dichotomy is a Dem thing.
You just provided a link says that people in the median household income range are evenly divided, and even those earning $200 000 and up nearly 40% vote Dem. Stop speaking out of both sides of your mouth.
Either way, you have failed to answer why the metro areas, where vast majority of Americans (80%) live, are dominated by Democrats.
Are 80% of Americans poor, and the US only seems 'rich' because of 20% of rich people all of whom are Republicans? That actually WOULD explain why they reject Republicans. It would mean they represent only the elite 20% and don't give a rip about the 80%. Do you think that is the reason?
Why do they reject Republicans and their policies?
You just provided a link says that people in the median household income range are evenly divided, and even those earning $200 000 and up nearly 40% vote Dem. Stop speaking out of both sides of your mouth.
No, it said median income and up were predominantly Republican. Now, ask yourself why Democrats are predominantly average income and below. Poor life skills? Bad decision-making? What?
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Either way, you have failed to answer why the metro areas, where vast majority of Americans (80%) live, are dominated by Democrats.
The population dense inner-cities, which are both highly Dem and have the highest poverty rate of all residential demographic groups.
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Why do they reject Republicans and their policies?
My guess would be it's part and parcel of their poor life skills, bad decision-making, etc.
That is pretty much what we are starting to see in the US. The rural/countryside areas vote far-right because those areas rely heavily on tradition and they don't have fresh ideas via immigrants or world eduction coming into those areas. It is easy for someone to come in and say look these people want to come in and make your traditions extinct and that usually springs them to a paranoid state of action.
It depends. Many rural areas tend to vote far right due to tradition. Many don't. One major example is the Deep South. Race plays a much bigger role in rural areas.
Rural, majority-White areas are often right-wing, and often vote Republican. Rural, majority-Black areas, while not exactly the most progressive areas, they tend to vote Democrat. I'll use Alabama as an example.
Alabama is 26% African-American. One would think Hilary Clinton would win this state. Not at all. Donald Trump received 62% of Alabama's votes, effectively winning the state. Republican candidates have won Alabama every election since 1980. However, it's very stratified.
Top 10 counties that Trump won by (%):
Winston: 89.5%
Blount: 89.3%
Cleburne: 87.4%
Cullman: 87.1%
Marion: 86.8%
Geneva: 85%
Lamar: 83.6%
Cherokee: 83.4%
Covington: 83.2%
Dekalb: 82.9%
Of the counties listed, 6 have African-American populations under 5%. All of them have White populations at least 80% or higher. Winston, the most Republican county in Alabama, has a Black population of 0.5%
Top 10 counties won by Clinton (%):
Macon: 82.8%
Greene: 92.2 %
Bullock: 75%
Sumter: 74%
Lowndes: 73%
Perry: 72.5%
Wilcox: 70.9%
Dallas: 68.3%
Montgomery: 61.5%
Hale: 59.6%
All top 10 counties are majority Black. Only Montgomery is the non-rural one on this list. All are majority Black. The top 3 have the highest percentage of Blacks in Alabama. Macon County (which is 84.6% Black) is home to Tuskegee University.
So Dems represent the extremely wealthy (Hollywood, Music Industry, Dow/Tech Inc billionaires, etc.) and the abjectly poor. No. Middle. Ground. To Dems, you're either one or the other... super rich... or poor.
Hmm, no not really. The country with the greatest socioeconomic disparity in the West...is the US. Not Canada, not Australia, not any European country, all of which are more liberal(i.e "Democrat") than the US.
A declining "middle ground" is a particularly American issue, not a liberal one.
That is pretty much what we are starting to see in the US. The rural/countryside areas vote far-right because those areas rely heavily on tradition and they don't have fresh ideas via immigrants or world eduction coming into those areas. It is easy for someone to come in and say look these people want to come in and make your traditions extinct and that usually springs them to a paranoid state of action.
Seems like the left is rehashing failed ideas from the 60s. And paranoid? Russian conspiracy anyone? Vast right wing conspiracy for the Hillary fans?
Rural areas have a lot of common sense because they actually have to be around people who don't think like them, unlike the cities where you can live in an almost all liberal or all conservative bubble.
Why are most cities in this country that are medium sized or larger run by Democrats?
You're aware that Dems are the majority nationally, right?
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