NYTimes editorial about the growing 'Urban-rural "apartheid" '

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

The Resentment Fueling the Republican Party Is Not Coming From the Suburbs
Rural America has become the Republican Party’s life preserver.

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The anger and resentment felt by rural voters toward the Democratic Party are driving a regional realignment similar to the upheaval in the white South after Democrats, led by President Lyndon Johnson, won approval of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Even so, Republicans are grasping at a weak reed. In a 2022 article, “Rural America Lost Population Over the Past Decade for the First Time in History,” Kenneth Johnson, the senior demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy and a professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, notes: “Between 2010 and 2020, rural America lost population for the first time in history as economic turbulence had a significant demographic impact. The rural population loss was due to fewer births, more deaths and more people leaving than moving in.”

The shift to the right in rural counties is one side of a two-part geographic transformation of the electorate, according to “The Increase in Partisan Segregation in the United States,” a 2022 paper by Jacob R. Brown of Princeton, Enrico Cantoni of the University of Bologna, Ryan D. Enos of Harvard, Vincent Pons of Harvard Business School and Emilie Sartre of Brown.

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In an email, Brown described one of the central findings of the study:

In terms of major factors driving the urban-rural split, our analysis shows that rural Republican areas are becoming more Republican predominantly due to voters in these places switching their partisanship to Republican. This is in contrast to urban areas becoming increasingly more Democratic largely due to the high levels of Democratic partisanship in these areas among new voters entering the electorate. These new voters include young voters registering once they become eligible and other new voters registering for the first time.
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The Trujillo-Crowley analysis suggests that Democratic efforts to regain support in rural communities face the task of somehow ameliorating conflicts over values, religion and family structure, which is far more difficult than lessening economic tensions that can be addressed through legislation.



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/opinion/rural-voters-republican-realignment.html

Urban-rural “apartheid” further reinforces ideological and affective polarization. The geographic separation of Republicans and Democrats makes partisan crosscutting experiences at work, in friendships, in community gatherings, at school or in local government — all key to reducing polarization — increasingly unlikely to occur.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Neo-Appalachia is no kind of lifestyle

[ZonkerHarris]

2. Sorry but the forcing of "rural" values on the suburban & urban population is the goal of the GOP

Fuck that shit
twice
Go to church if you want but don't force it on me or my government's laws.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. I've made this point many times on DU.

The fault line is rural vs. urban, regardless of region. Rural areas, by definition, are far more insulated from exposure to diverse opinions.

Been this way for a long time. In the 1920's we had a robust KKK activism in Central Maine. Why? There were few blacks in the area....but there were incoming French Canadian Catholics that were threatening the rural status quo. We elected a governor from my town that was connected to this political/social "movement".

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

5. "Rural areas, by definition, are far more insulated from exposure to diverse opinions."

I agree with you... look at the controversies regarding education.

Rightwingers are currently raging against Universities /colleges as places that make the young more liberal. But simply by bringing a variety of people together (Gender, race, language, culture, age, economic status) - people become more liberal. "exposure" is the key.

[dalton99a]

7. +1. McCarthy and Stefanik were elected by blue state residents

Rural residents.

[Hortensis]

11. Yes. Same dynamics around the planet. nt

[TheRealNorth]

4. I feel bad for Democrats living in rural areas...

Bet there is a lot of "Cancel culture" going on in those small towns.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

6. a lot of libraries going to be closing down or only stocked with the Bible

[dalton99a]

8. Kick

https://archive.ph/8qeYX

[ConstanceCee]

9. Get Off the Interstate

On car trips, I think it's a good idea to get off the Interstate for a while, if you can. This can be an eye-opening experience.

[Hortensis]

10. Worth reading, sure, but what's with using the loaded word "apartheid"

so inappropriately? Did they put it in the headline for clickbait and have it edited out?

We all know what apartheid is. And we know that all those awful urban Jews and blacks, and of course snooty white libs, aren't displacing poor Ozzie and Harriet to segregation in distant wastelands. They not only have the vote, but on on average they actually count more than those of urban dwellers, -- to "resentful" rural conservatives all part of being proudly deserving Americans versus those who aren't either.

[TheRealNorth]

18. Lol that's a good point...

If anything, the rural voters are imposing an apartheid on urban areas.

[brooklynite]

12. Rural is still an essential component of the Democratic vote

Even if we only attract 2-3% in rural counties, that can add up to the difference between winning and losing Statewide.

[Aristus]

13. "The anger and resentment felt by rural voters toward the Democratic Party"

"Rural resentment".

Sorry, but I will not be blamed for the shitty lives these people lead when there is a direct correlation between their quality of life and the political candidates they vote for.

[senseandsensibility]

16. Exactly.

This could be its own post. There are so many examples of how this is true. It really needs to be articulated by our side repeatedly, but I don't know if it ever is in an explicit way.

[70sEraVet]

14. Not really news.

The kids leave the family farm to go to college, then get a job in an urban area (no jobs back home). Some come back after they retire, to care for their aging parents. But most never come back.
I suppose one of the main new factors, is that there are fewer family farms to come back to.
Hardly surprising that there is also a political aspect involved. When you see a small, rural Southern town, look at the cemeteries - whites buried in this cemetery, blacks buried in that cemetery. They can't even stand to have their dead folk buried with black dead folk!
How are you going to get them to vote Democrat? Would you even WANT them to be Democrats?

[PufPuf23]

15. Technological connectivity and education are required to bridge

the urban - rural divide.

Technological connectivity and education are the bare minimum.

Distribution of wealth and income need to flatten as well. Rural areas can be attractive places to live given the ability to obtain and maintain connectivity.

[jcgoldie]

17. unfortunately

The electoral college and gerrymandering and the conservative bias in the senate allow that rural areas can continue to lose population and have an outsized influence on American policy. Dirt still has way more power than people.