Somebody enlighten me

[Droopy]

I have a few questions. I hope they haven't been gone over before. If they have then please forgive me. I've been avoiding the political forums since the election.

Why do large cities tend to be more liberal than small towns and rural America? And what can we do to get small town and rural America to see things from our point of view?

I'm thinking that the larger minority populations in the cities may have something to do with their liberalness, but I really don't know. And I have no clue on what we might do to get rural America to see things our way. I guess Air America is a good start, but they've probably got a long way to go before they start airing in Mississippi.

[JRob]

1. Population density and access to ideas and information...

[Droopy]

16. But we've had the internet for a while now

You'd think that some of that information would have rubbed off on the red staters by now.

[JRob]

24. That does not mean that these people use it...

having spent most of my life in LA and NYC I know the Urban thing, but I also have spent time, and currently live in a very small town in a predominately rural part of the country.

The people that can afford a computer do not necessarily have the skills or the inclination to surf the net... If they do their focus is pretty limited.

City people take for granted a level of sophistication and skepticism about government that is not shared in a lot of rural communities. Some of the facts that we know to be true are considered too fantastic to be believed or they are preempted by the MSM (FOX is huge), the local clergy or RW talk radio.

Unfortunately I believe it will take major declines in our quality of life, a penetration of the MSM, loss of patience with the war etc. to get the message out in a wide spread way.

[snowbear]

2. Someone's theory about that on Crossfire a while back..

...was that metro areas tend to have larger populations of extremely educated people..

Guess you have to figure out what they meant by it.. :7

[Droopy]

4. Education=liberalness?

I can see that. But I'm not all that educated and I'm a liberal. I flunked out of college. Twice. And what about all those farmers with agricultural science degrees?

[snowbear]

7. Also the progressive "tolerant" lifestyle is more prevalent

Lots of reasons I suppose :shrug:

[Droopy]

9. I guess when you have to live with a lot of different people

it will make you more tolerant of others. Or you'll go insane with hatred and move out to the sticks to start a white supremacist militia.

[funflower]

27. Just because you flunked out of college doesn't mean you aren't

educated!

[Droopy]

28. I guess so

There is something to be said for life experience. But I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. That book learnin' thing ain't for me. But I guess you don't have to have a Ph.D. to have some sense about you.

[funflower]

29. I've taught college grads and people who didn't finish. I know that the

BA degree mostly means you were willing to jump through the hoops necessary to finish. Some of the best educated people I know are self-taught folks who've rarely gone near a college.

[rabid_nerd]

3. Mutual cultural ignorance

The population centers are more liberal because of the lack of resources and the need to share, coupled with the interdependency of the community. This requires control of an otherwise chaotic, compressed society, which in turn requires buracracy and rules of conduct not necessary in rural areas. Other than the enforced rules to keep order(lapd), social requirements are otherwise lax (left wing).

The rural areas are more conservative because of the lack of dependency on each other because of increased individual resources, and community is more social than necessary. Given the infrequent need for help or control, official rules are relatively lax (barney fife), but social requirements are high (right wing).

I've probably shown some ignorance here, but I've lived in Vegas, Pompano Beach, and all over PA. But hey, it's almost 2:30.. Gimme a break..

[Droopy]

5. So you're saying that

if city dwellers and rural dwellers were to get together and talk about things we'd have a more moderate America?

[rabid_nerd]

19. I think there's serious educational deficiencies on both sides

Both are horribly ignorant of each other...

Take gun control...

It's never going to pass as a nation-wide thing. NEVER.

You've got mostly people who've never left the confines of an urban center (like LA) purporting to know what's right for all of America.

Well, some things aren't right nation-wide.

Now I'm talking about some on here who talk about banning all guns, and there are some. They're just in fantasy land.

Even banning certain models is a farce because they just slap another model number on it or modify it slightly and bam, it's legal.

Or there's raising gas tax by $xx/gallon to clean up the envirnment by forcing cars off the road... Sorry, but there's a lot of people who live in rural america, and always have for all their life (and DIDN'T transplant to commute) and drive a yugo or a rabbit in North Dakota and some yuppie in LA will say "ride a bike" or someone from NY will say "take the subway" to save the envrinment..

Well if there's 4 feet of snow and you need milk and bread for the kids, there's a certain finger I'm sure that person would offer.

Conversely, people in rural America are just as guilty, they see:
big city = higher crime
big city = more minorities
and therefore conclude, more minorities = higher crime

That's not a equation of racism, it's an equation of ignorance.
There is a difference, I believe.
One is pure hate, and one can be taught to.

That said, as the Mayor of an urbanizing town (density over 5000/sq mi) in a rural county where it's the rare Democratic bastion, it's a mini example, (albeit laughable when compared to the size of a NY or LA).

The point is, it doesn't take many people in one spot for a place to go "blue"...

But another factor is long term history.

My town used to be filled with Cigar factories - 22, all unionized. That's where the Democratic majority came from. Not a single unionized shop remains, and only one small family cigar manufacturer is left - the oldest in the country. But the Cigar Union history is strong here, and being "born a Democrat" helps.

Conversely, being "born a Republican" is also common in surrounding areas.

[Droopy]

22. I have to agree with you

There is much to be learned on both sides. We need to open a dialogue with the red voters.

[nicholieeee]

6. well

i'd imagine it has something to do with how people in the south think the civil war is still going on...and those that know its over believe they won.

[Droopy]

8. Welcome to DU, nicholieeee

But I don't know about your theory.

[snowbear]

10. You mean like... "Good Ol Boys"

[demwing]

11. Exposure to a variety of viewpoints and experiences

It happens often in the big city, rarely in the sticks.

People don't evolve much when their lives are stagnate.

[Droopy]

14. I think you may be on to something

But if it were 100% true then there wouldn't be small town liberals like me.

[snowbear]

12. In the sticks..

Big pickup trucks with pitbulls in the back, huge-ass gun rack, NRA sticker in the window, chewin' tabbacie, and a "keep the Government outta my life, stop gun control, and ban gays" attitute!

Or at least that's how my brother in rurual Alabama tells me all his neighbors are..

:shrug:

[Droopy]

13. Is it just something in the water that makes them like that?

Maybe it's mom's down-home cooking. Or maybe it's the hills.

[snowbear]

17. Could be.. or something in the Jack Daniels anyway....

:rofl:

Then again.. my brother is a white, christrian, hunter, who drives a truck, has dogs and can't stand Republicans!

He wasn't crazy about Kerry :shrug: but they still voted for him..

He keeps telling me that even the "good ol boys" he hangs out with would have ALL voted for Clark. They liked him a LOT. They despised Kerry.

All I know is I want our next candidate to be able to appeal to all parties. It's our BEST ammunition! ;)

[Droopy]

20. Ah yes

I a Kucitizen myself. I wish everybody saw the wisdom of the little fella. But I understand he just might be a little too liberal for most of America right now. It certainly showed in the primaries. I don't know if Clark could have won it for us, but I liked him and would have felt comfortable voting for him. Why didn't the good ol' boys like Kerry? Was it because he was a yankee?

[demwing]

23. "Why didn't the good ol' boys like Kerry? Was it because he was a yankee?"

Partly.

I think Kerry challenged them to think a little too much. His war record didn't fit their notions of a Dem, which is why the Swift Boat Liars gained somuch traction. Some people didn't want Kerry to be a hero, because that would contradict their myopic view of the world.

Also, Kerry is a bit pedantic, and he drones. He didn't use to, but years in the Senate must have pushed it into his skull. That doesn't play well good ol boys

[snowbear]

25. Sad to say....

According to my bro (he's lived there 15 years) so he knows a lot of good ol boys..

He thinks that the Swiftvet ads did it in for Kerry... In other words, no matter what my brother said.. it didn't matter, they believed the ads and they watched the stinking made-for-TV movie they aired countless times that attacked him..

I seriously think though... that even in the back roads of rural America, a Democrat CAN win ------------------ But it has to be the right Deocract and he has to know how to talk to rural America as effective as he does in metro America... :)

[Droopy]

26. Yes!

"But it has to be the right Deocract and he has to know how to talk to rural America as effective as he does in metro America..."

Yes!

[dchill]

15. It seems to me...

that city-dwellers are exposed daily to many varieties of races, lifestyles, cultural beliefs and the like, and see that people are more alike than they are different - that there is nothing to fear on those bases.

On the other hand, people in rural areas are exposed to fewer people, and even fewer lifestyles. Add to this fear of the unknown the constant daily barrage of today's right-wing fear-mongering media, and presto! Instant RepubliCon.

OK, probably an over-simplification, but I've lived in both situations, and it seems right to me. Anyway, I think a lot of Republican "thought" is born out of fear.

[Droopy]

18. I think you are right in that fear of the different is a factor

I think the minority population of Wyoming is about 0.8%. So maybe I am right to a certain degree in that minorities may be influencing the liberalness of the cities.

[dchill]

21. Yup.

It's called xenophobia. (Fear and contempt of strangers or foreign peoples.) A huge motivation for the NeoCon philosophy, IMO.