Rural vs Urban: The dirty little secret you were never told

[Joe Nation]

After listening to yet another news piece on the views of rural vs urban voters, I am convinced more than ever that the rural vs urban "divide" in this country is just nonsense. Oh, not that it doesn't exist. It's just that it is manufactured, not an inevitable dichotomy that would arise in any political environment.

I'm in my middle 60's and have lived on farms (born on one), lived in the suburbs, lived in LA, and lived in small towns surrounded by cornfields at various points in my life. I've shared neighborhoods with people from almost any walk of life. However, there is one dynamic I keep hearing about and it sort of makes me angry.

Anytime you hear someone interviewed about their rural life, they will almost without fail say that the people in the "city" look down on the folks that live rurally. I hear this opinion constantly. I heard some young people joking to the interviewer on NPR that they all have all of their teeth as if everyone in urban America thinks they don't. This opinion is common in my experience in rural areas.

Here's the dirty little secret. People in the "city" don't think about people that live rurally and they never have. If you asked someone in an urban setting about what they think about the people that live in rural areas, they'd probably struggle to come up with an opinion at all. But don't tell that to the small-town crowd. They are convinced that everyone from the big old city looks down on them. They aren't looking at all.

Can anyone else relate to this observation or is it just me.

[msongs]

1. rural means lots of different things, from welfare farmers to appalachian hill people. its not a

uniform demographic. mostly what I think of when I hear rural is poverty and religion. there's lots of variety in terms of race and ethnicity in the rural scene.

[CrispyQ]

2. IMO, rural America thinks that they're the only real Americans.

The rest of us are secondary. I suspect alot of them think they're the only true Christians, too.

[AverageOldGuy]

14. You nailed it.

I grew up in rural Mississippi when cotton was king. As a youngster, I vowed to get out of there and never see a cotton boll ever again. My wife grew up in rural Alabama and she made the same promise to herself. We met in college (small scholarships, full-time summer work, part-time work while in school) in Alabama, left the South for professional careers and never looked back except for the occasional funeral. We are now 78 and 80; our two kids are in their early 50's.

All our siblings and cousins in Alabama and Mississippi have essentially broken contact with us -- they all live in small, rural towns and either farm or depend on farming for their businesses. Before they quit speaking to us, we NEVER, NEVER said or suggested anything derogatory to them. A few years before Trump we detected a change in the atmosphere -- they all but stopped calling us; had little to say when we called them; no longer sent us photos of their kids graduating, winning a 4H prize, and the like.

Eight years ago wife's younger brother died. We went to the funeral after which one of her other brothers and a cousin and their wives unloaded on how they did not want to talk with us again because all we "city folks" are snobs who look down on them, how they are the only true Americans because the city people are "communists and socialists," how they are the only "good Christians" because the "big city churches" are only interested in "q###rs and n###ers," etc., etc., etc. Wife cried for two days, all the way back home, and that was the end of our contact with them.

All of them are evangelical Baptists and Trump voters -- we know this because a couple of their kids quietly stay in touch with our kids.

[hunter]

20. Yep. I've lived and worked in both environments.

Rural U.S.A. can be a horrible place.

"Brain drain" from these places is a real thing. The brightest, most interesting kids escape or they kill themselves -- slowly by alcohol, drugs, or reckless living, or quickly by suicide. A few bright kids manage to hang tough and actually bring light to the rural communities they are born into but that's a rarer thing.

Our political system romanticizes rural U.S.A. for the simple fucked up reason that rural votes have more weight than the votes of city people. That was one of the crappier compromises made in the founding of our nation.

For a start we ought to neuter the Senate and get rid of the electoral college.

And we ought not tolerate crap anti-intellectual religions that are intolerant of "others."

Please note, my personal opinions are not practical politics, and do not reflect the political platform of the Democratic Party.

I could also be prejudiced. Three of my grandparents gave the big "fuck you" to rural U.S.A. as young people and fled, never looking back.

[Chainfire]

40. That is a vast oversimplification.

I grew up in a tiny town (population about 300) I lived in a small city (Tallahassee) Large cities (Chicago and Miami) and now live in the woods in a very rural area; so I do have some experience on the subject. What I have found is that City people feel superior to rural people and rural people feel superior to city people; and in fact there is little difference in the people. If you think that rural people have a monopoly on hate, fear and ignorance, you just aren't paying attention. Anecdotal evidence to support my theory is just take a look at the places of residences of the people tried and convicted in the J6 attempt to overthrow the government; I believe you will find that they are from most every state, and from mixed types of neighborhoods.

If all rural Americans voted for far right candidates, and all urban Americans voted for liberals, there would never be a nationally elected Republican; for we make up only 20% of the population! The rural populations do not drive American politics...

At age 70+, a Southerner, and as a Yellow-dog Democrat, a dedicated liberal, and confirmed atheist, I have chosen to live the rest of my life in a rural area. I am not the only one. Just don't blame those like me for the national divide.

[SYFROYH]

3. Kind of. Urban folks doen't have to think about rural folks, whereas...

,,,rural folks have to think about city folks because their states revolve around the big cities.


But if a city person finds themselves in a rural setting r meeting a country person in the city, they have a lot to say after the initial charm wears off.

[chowder66]

4. I think it depends on the person. In general you may be right though.

I have an appreciation of rural places because I took road trips and really enjoyed the open spaces, mountains and the small towns.
I was either passing through or only staying for a couple of weeks, however...but I'm glad I got the exposure.

My brother lived in a rural area too and I enjoyed visiting. I don't know what it would be like to do those trips today.

[haele]

5. I've lived rural, small town semi-rural, and in the city.

Small Town semi-rural folks will look down on rural folks far more
than city folks do. Some of the worst snobs and gossips, flat out mean folks I've met were the big fish in small pond country town types.

Also, since the magic of TV and Social Media, those rural folks coming into the big city aren't walking around gawking like hicks or having misadventures like the "Out of Towners" anymore. Most big city folks either ignore rural travellers or will help them if they ask for help like regular tourists or out of Towners - even wish them a happy visit.

Big city folks have had to learn to live with diversity. Something small town folks often don't have to deal with.

Haele

[Liberty Belle]

6. I strongly disagree. I see a lot of disdain in our county by urban politicians toward rural voters.

Here are a few examples:

They proposed a mileage tax to encourage use of transit -- except there is no mass transit in rural areas, most of which are poor and can't afford $500 to $1,000 a month in taxes just because they have to commute to work in the urban areas.

They closed fire stations to save money and predictably, wildfires destroyed homes and lives.

they changed the rules for our regional association of governments, so that two coastal urban cities control more than 50% of the votes, taking away power from rural areas since in the past, every city had equal votes. Now those two regularly trample over the concerns of rural residents by imposing things that are often harmful to rural residents, with utter disdain.

They approved industrial-scale wind farms on wetlands and wildlife preserves, putting up 500 foot-tall wind turbines with flashing red lights and whirling blades close to homes, over residents' objections,without any large projects in urban or coastal areas. Those turbines have hurled off 11 ton blades, collapsed onto a public trail, and several of them burst into flames,sparking fires. A group sued the county,and a new study finds it would be cheaper and produce more power to build infill green energy projects in urban areas instead, when the cost of building transmission lines and energy lost in transmission are taken into effect.

After big fires here, the power company shuts of energy every time its hot and windy -- sometimes leaving rural residents without power for days,but nobody seems to care because the urban areas are not affected.

To save money, the county slashed its budget for ambulance services, so more people die in rural areas because it takes too longfor ambulances to get there.

The County forced closure of a rural and very effective volunteer fire dept by halting its funding and mandating takeover by a new county fire dept, but forgot to provide a snow plow or snow tires, causing the vehicles to get stuck and be unable to respond to emergencies shortly after the takeover. Residents had strenuously opposed the forced takeover, to no avail.

Politicians more than once have done a bait and switch, promising that if large housing projects were built close to rural areas, they would expand freeways to prevent gridlock. Then after the homes were built, they decided to spent transportation dollars in the urban areas on more trolleys and bike lanes instead, while residetnts in outlying areas deal with traffic jams and still no access to transit.

There is a lot of resentment in our rural areas against the liberal politicians in the urban areas that control party politics, and they have legitimate beefs. These are some of the reasons why most of the rural voters here vote Republican. If Democrats would treat rural residents fairly and with respect, and actually come up with an agenda in each county to help rural voters, they could win many of these votes.

For many rural residents, they are on the brink of survival,struggling to keep their farms or small businesses in an era of rising costs and increased regulations, such as California's AB 5, which makes it very hard for small businesses and farms to stay alive (trying to make everyone an employee with benefits, even very small companies that rely on freelancers and part-timers and seasonal workers).

Approved sprawling housing along rural areas that were the only wildlife evacuation routes -- so dangerous that multiple judges blocked multiple projects in our county due to the extreme fire danger that the politicians ignored.

Farmers are struggling to adapt to drought, climate change,and competition from factory farms. But nobody's paying attention to their plight.

I've drawn attention over the years to some rural problems,and occasionally gotten something changed. We need rural issues forums in every county. A few things I've helped get done here are:
- Bringing veterans service remotely to libraries in rural areas
- Shaming the county into adding an additional ambulance after it gutted service (we still need more)
- Getting fire stations reopened after they were cut due to budget cuts, by getting a whistleblower to leak the staffing reduction proof (the closures were never publicly announced)
- Creating a guide during COVID to farms selling directly to the public, to help them survive after restaurants, their main customers, had to close
- Pointing out that the county's COVID relief funding plan excluded every rural business, since it was copied from a federal form that required a business license--and our county no longer requires business licenses in rural areas.
- Getting the county to allow rural wineries to reopen after all bars were shut down during COVID due to partying in the urban bars, when not a single case of COVID had been traced to a rural outdoor winery. My coverage was credited with saving our region's wine industry, which is all mom-and-pop places.

These are just a few examples where politicians could and should have done better at respecting rural concerns and providing solutions to their problems.

[Skittles]

10. I think the subject is regular folk

not politicians

[First Speaker]

15. Thank you. This is an excellent, eye-opening post...

...I spent a significant part of my childhood on a family farm in Connecticut--now, of course, a housing development. But there was still such a thing as a rural character to CT in those days. The needs of rural America are neglected by just about everybody. Thanks for telling us some things that I certainly didn't know...

[hunter]

43. Your lament for rural California illustrates what's wrong with it...

... but maybe not in the way you intended.

I don't know why these "rural lifestyles" ought to be subsidized. If you can't pay your workers a comfortable living wage maybe you shouldn't be in business. If your town can't support itself maybe it should be torn down, the roads and power lines removed, and the land returned to a natural state.

I don't have a lot of respect for "history," especially California history. We killed off most of the Native Americans, often by overt murder, took all their land, and trashed it. Woohooo!

My parents and my wife's parents bought into the "Mother Earth News" mythology in the 1970s.

They themselves had been raised in the city, mostly because their parents had decided rural life sucked.

My grandma and her sister didn't want anything to do with the family dairy business, they despised cows and dairymen, so they ran wild in Hollywood. My grandfather didn't want to be a miner or rancher in Wyoming or Montana so he ran away from home at sixteen and joined the Army Air Force as soon as he could, hoping to see more of the world. And he did. He met my grandma and her sister while he was stationed in California as an aircraft mechanic.

My mom's parents didn't like cows either. They left their family ranches to work in the Southern California shipyards during World War II. My parents met while working as artists with day jobs in Hollywood.

Then both my parents, and my wife's parents, all of them city kids, decided rural living was for them, buying homes and acreage in the Sierra Nevada, which is why my wife and I have been making frequent trips across California's Central valley for the past thirty five years or so. (We live in a world of Mexican American working class people and farm workers.)

In the last few years our parents have been through many close calls with fire. Major fires have burned within a mile of my wife's parent's house, and within a few hundred yards of the home my parents still own but no longer live in. (That was saved by a direct air drop of red fire retardant which later had to be washed off the house...)

The latest problem in much of rural California is the rapid expansion of expensive short term rentals which make it nearly impossible for young people and other lower income people to stay there.

Our families won't do short term rentals, but that's not going to stop anyone who eventually buys my parent's house.

My parent's house is increasingly a burden rather than a joy. The area seems increasingly intolerant of anyone who isn't straight, white, and the sort of Christian who drives an SUV and flies a Trump flag. As global warming takes it toll the water supply has become increasingly insecure. This property doesn't have primary water rights. There's a deep suspicion that the holders of primary water rights and deep pocket land owners who can afford very deep wells are going to suck all the water up, screw everyone else.

My wife's parent's house has primary water rights. There have been some squabbles over water, but state and federal official put an end to that at a public meeting where they told everyone it would cost them millions of dollars in legal fees and no good would come of it if people couldn't simply be good neighbors. People have been good neighbors for the last few years, but who knows what will happen in the next inevitable severe drought.

I totally agree with you about wind turbines. Building them in previously undeveloped areas is despicable. We won't save the natural environment by destroying it. What's worse, these wind turbines will do nothing, absolutely nothing, to reduce the total amount of fossil fuel waste humans dump into the atmosphere. They won't even delay the inevitable reckonings of global warming as they are entirely dependent on fossil fuels, especially natural gas, for their economic viability.

As noted above, this is my personal, highly impractical, political platform, not representative of any Democratic Party platform.

My voting, however, is always practical. I don't vote for Republicans or third party spoilers. The first President I enthusiastically supported and voted for was Jimmy Carter.

[DBoon]

46. Wind generated electricity is an important part of our renewable energy portfolio

https://www.calwea.org/fast-facts

Wind energy projects totaling at least 5,787 megawatts (MW) of capacity are operating in California today,1 providing enough electricity to power about 2.3 million California households.2

In 2020, California wind projects generated 13,703 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity – 7.2% of all power generated within California.3 In 2020, out-of-state wind projects generated 16,635 GWh of electricity for California, representing 20% of total power imports.3 Combined, wind projects supplied 11% of California’s total system power,3 more than enough to power all homes in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles Counties combined.2

Wind energy accounted for 27% of California’s renewable energy production for the RPS as of 2019.4 (See figure below.)

Generating wind power creates no emissions and uses virtually no water.

I don't see wind power "destroying the natural environment".

[hunter]

48. How? In practice wind energy is frequently unavailable when it's most needed.

Whenever wind energy doesn't show up for work, which is most of the time, we burn gas.

Wind energy is totally dependent on fossil fuels for its economic viability. Without fossil fuels it's worthless. Wind energy cannot displace fossil fuels entirely, which is something we must do.

Supporting these large scale wind and solar projects is just another flavor of climate change denial, and will only prolong our dependence on natural gas.

This argument is not a case of the "perfect being the enemy of good." This is a problem of wind and solar enthusiasts believing in impossible things.

California has many gigawatts of wind and solar capacity. We can see how these power sources behave in actual practice and we can model what an actual all-renewable electric grid might look like by subtracting out gas and nuclear power and calculating how much storage would be required to provide a reliable electric supply. It ain't pretty.

http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html

I'm a radical environmentalist. I think installing wind turbines and solar projects on previously undeveloped land and seascapes, especially in fragile desert ecosystems, is a vile practice because hybrid wind / solar / fossil fuel power systems will not "save the world." Mining, refining, and fabricating the materials required to build all these short-lived wind turbines, some of these materials rare, will also have huge environmental impacts.

If everyone on the planet starts believing in these hybrid power systems then the world still burns with little or no delay in the final reckonings.

Like it or not, nuclear power is the only energy resource capable of displacing fossil fuels entirely.

Back in the late 'seventies and early eighties I was an anti-nuclear activist. I've changed my mind.

[DBoon]

50. Three Myths About Renewable Energy and the Grid, Debunked

In reality, it is entirely possible to sustain a reliable electricity system based on renewable energy sources plus a combination of other means, including improved methods of energy management and storage. A clearer understanding of how to dependably manage electricity supply is vital because climate threats require a rapid shift to renewable sources like solar and wind power. This transition has been sped by plummeting costs —Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that solar and wind are the cheapest source for 91 percent of the world’s electricity — but is being held back by misinformation and myths.

...

Myth No. 2: Countries like Germany must continue to rely on fossil fuels to stabilize the grid and back up variable wind and solar power.

Again, the official data say otherwise. Between 2010 — the year before the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan — and 2020, Germany’s generation from fossil fuels declined by 130.9 terawatt-hours and nuclear generation by 76.3 terawatt hours. These were more than offset by increased generation from renewables (149.5 terawatt hours) and energy savings that decreased consumption by 38 terawatt hours in 2019, before the pandemic cut economic activity, too. By 2020, Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions had declined by 42.3 percent below its 1990 levels, beating the target of 40 percent set in 2007. Emissions of carbon dioxide from just the power sector declined from 315 million tons in 2010 to 185 million tons in 2020.

So as the percentage of electricity generated by renewables in Germany steadily grew, its grid reliability improved, and its coal burning and greenhouse gas emissions substantially decreased.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/three-myths-about-renewable-energy-and-the-grid-debunked

[hunter]

54. That's all bullshit and magical thinking.

Seriously. People are making money promoting this fantasy that wind turbines and solar panels and hydrogen and magical batteries will save the world.

It's all greenwash for the natural gas industry. In Germany's case it was Russia's natural gas industry, of which a former German Chancellor is an asset.

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-former-chancellor-gerhard-schr%C3%B6der-to-join-gazprom-board/a-60664273

Unfortunately for all of us, there's enough natural gas in the ground to destroy whatever is left of the natural world as we know it, and probably our civilization as well. It's best we leave that gas in the ground. Natural gas power is the greatest threat to humanity, not nuclear power.

Germany is a flaming energy catastrophe.

Compare to France here:

https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE

Being "the most improved player on the team" is easy when you start out as a coal burning hell hole.

France closed its last coal mine two decades ago.

[Silent Type]

7. It's easy to "look down" on people in Marjorie Crazy Greene's, etc., districts.

But, there are usually 25% or so that vote against her, trump, etc.

I’m glad I lived in a progressive metro area in the South. But, a more rural area is working well in semi-retirement.

[Silent Type]

8. Sorry, double posted.

[Skittles]

9. I agree with your assessment

city folk don't look down on rural folk, they don't really think about them at all - if anything, it is rural folk who tend to stereotype city folk - and yes, I too have lived city, burbs, rural, farm

[brewens]

11. Ever been to Clearwater county, Idaho? Lowest tooth count per capita in the nation.

I can't prove that, but if it's not, I'd like to know how.

[swong19104]

12. To be fair

As an urban dweller, I see that we barely acknowledge or recognize our urban neighbors for more than a millisecond. We're all in our little world and no one else is relevant. It is a tad too bad, too sad, but urban residents have a lot on their minds as well, none of which is even about their neighbors, much less about the far-off rural citizens. For all we know, they could be living on a planet revolving around Promixa Centauri.

[Cosmocat]

22. Correct

I just made this point.

Rural people have a lot more free time, no traffic, less hectic lives, less to do.

So a good bit more time on their hands.

Non rural people are busier, and along with that as you note, in their own world.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I have lived in urban areas, and in rural areas.

I'm angry and horrified at the supposed conflict between the two. I'm sorry, but this is a large country with lots of different areas. Do NOT think any one part of this country is in fundamental conflict with any other.

Get over it. I'm so fucking tired of the "these people look down on those other people" that I want to scream. Honestly, rural people look down on city people, city people look down on rural folks and who honestly gives a shit?? Recognize that some of us are different from others (huge surprise, I know) and get over it. The variety of people and lifestyles exists. Yes, it does. Don't worry about those differences, don't care about them, and don't emphasize them.

Honestly, as someone who has lived in different parts of the country, in different areas (as in rural and urban) I'm completely disgusted by this kind of opposition. Oh, dear lord.

[womanofthehills]

16. Guess you guys don't realize that tons of city folk retire to rural places

I live rural - because it’s a conservation district - one house on 40 acres. 90% of my neighbors are college educated Democrats. People want to garden, have clean air, live in nature.

The closest small town to me with around 900 people (probably half Dems & half Republicans) voted for a Dem mayor twice because of what he’s done for the kids of the town and the town.

[multigraincracker]

17. Could be wrong, but I think suburban

out number both.

[betsuni]

18. I agree.

And it isn't as though everyone in big cities is from there, people move from all over the country.

Every time Democratic politicians are accused of being out of touch elites "ignoring" rural people/working class, clueless about the problems in this country, I get really angry. As if Republicans help anyone except the 1% and listen and care about rural economic problems. I hate that and anyone who does it.

Last time I visited the Pacific Northwest, where I'm from, we took a ferry and I couldn't open a door to the deck. Was pulling when I should've be pushing or vice versa. A guy behind us sighed and muttered, "Tourists." I wanted to yell at him, "I'M FROM HERE, I JUST CAN'T OPEN DOORS," but I was raised by shy Midwestern Lutherans and could never be that rude, also because I was scared he'd yell back.

[Bayard]

19. Actually,

I don't think rural folks think about city or suburban dwellers any more than those residents think about rural areas. Especially if they've never lived anywhere else. Their issues are generally very different.

I've lived in big cities, suburban, and rural. I definitely prefer the latter, as much peace and quiet and privacy as I can get.

If you want to turn more rural/small town areas Democrat, you have to be ambidextrous in tuning into different issues. There is some crossover though, such as childcare, taxes, and crumbling infrastructure.

[Cosmocat]

21. 100% spot on - do a t-shirt count

Been saying similar my whole life.

Rural people overwhelmingly are obsessed with city people, have a low opinion of them and project that into their belief that city people look down on them.

Mass hysteria of "limousine liberals" sitting around at cocktail parties talking down on them, because, and I know this cause I live half in it, they have a lot of time on their hands and their number one hobby is half shit talking each other and half shit talking "liberals" out of an inferiority complex.

By and large, non rural people, while they certainly shit talk themselves, they don't even concern themselves with rural people because they have less time on their hands and are more preoccupied with themselves.

All throughout this country our rural areas are PLASTERED with truly hateful rural vs urban signs and t-shirts.

I don't know that I have ever seen a sign or t-shirt hating on country folks in any non rural area.

[modrepub]

23. And The Logical Follow Up ?

When was the last time you visited a big city?

I suspect most folks opinionating have never spent significant time in a city; their only exposure is watching the news or maybe reading someone else’s experience. That qualifies as the “Facebook” experience, but in reverse (seeing all the bad things).

[betsuni]

25. What does that mean? "The news" or "someone else's experience" or "the 'Facebook' experience"

is people's only exposure to the big city? How so?

I watched "the news" today and it was all about high temperatures, flooding, wildfires, criminals and serial killers and missing persons all across the country. Nothing about the "big city."

[Emile]

24. As someone who lives in a rural area, I

can honestly say I don't have any thoughts about what people in town think about me. I don't look down on city people, I'm just happy to be out in the country.

[maxrandb]

26. It's by design, but Dems...some of them...buy into it

I have posted on this subject before. It pisses me off. It makes me so angry, I can't fucking see.

Ever seen a "Focus Group" of Biden voters from downtown Cleveland?

Ever seen a troupe in a mainstream opinion piece, or book written by a Retrumplican Senator, chastising Retrumplicans for "being out of touch" with urban voters?

Whenever fucking Chuck Todd, or other reporters, want to conduct a "Focus Group" of "average Americans", they go to a fucking place like Beaver County, PA, when Pittsburgh is just 10 minute away by car.

It's a fucking One-Way street.

I can find thousands of Op-Eds about what "rural voters" consider the "major issues" of the day, and how Dems need to "reach-out" and "understand" Find me one from Susan Collins taking the Retrumplican Party to task for "failing to reach-out" , or "understand" city dwellers.

The sad fact is, if the "liberal" media would occasionally interview and talk to the voters in urban America, we would find that "their" hopes, dreams, problems, issues and values, match up quite a bit with the hopes, dreams, problems, issues and values of rural voters.

Even this OP addresses the issue from the slant of how "rural 'Murika" perceives the views of their "fellow" Americans in the cities.

That should piss us all off.

[betsuni]

27. THANK YOU!

Always, always, always blame Democrats.

Republicans reach out, listen, help rural and working class people economically and totally don't take them for granted, visit every household, great at messaging and NEVER ignore ANYBODY like the bad Democrats who are like, totally beholden to oligarchs and the 1% and corporations.

What kind of idiots believe that?

[maxrandb]

28. What idiots believe that?

Hate-Radio listening Donnie Dipshit voters.

[betsuni]

30. Not only them.

[maxrandb]

29. And don't forget

That waitress, serving $80 steaks for 12 hours a day at minimum wage and driving an Uber after work so she can afford her 400 Square Foot walkup in Seattle, is an "elitist"

[llmart]

31. Excellent discussion.

I agree with you that the divide has been "manufactured". You even referred to that at the start of your post. ("After listening to yet another news piece"...). The other posters all had their own experiences and opinions and they run the gamut.

I think a lot of young people who grow up in small, rural communities want to get out of there as soon as they graduate (I did), and those who grow up in the big city yearn for the country life. It seems to me it's a really good example of the old adage "the grass is always greener on the other side of the street."

I went back to my small, rural town for a reunion during the run-up to the 2016 election and my high school friend drove me around to show me places I'd known. I honestly did not see more than 3 or 4 election signs that were not for Trump. We went for breakfast to a small diner that had been there since I was young and I looked around the dining room and saw/listened to the people and what they talked about and it was like I was stuck back in the 50's. Seeing the land and wide open spaces in some areas made me long to live like that again, but I just knew that unless I decided to be a hermit with very little outside contact, I wouldn't have much in common with most people. It's not that I was looking down on them. It was that I'm the type of person who needs intellectual stimulation and like-minded people.

I've ended up spending most of my life right in the middle of the two - living in the suburbs. Close enough to the city and close enough to the country. In these last one or two decades of my life, I have come to realize that another old adage comes to mind - "everything old is new again". Though the specifics may differ, each generation seems to go through the same stages as the past ones. I know I did.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

32. This isn't my experience at all.

[mainer]

33. Some rural folks need to play the victim

“They despise us! They’re arrogant! They’re elites! “

It makes city folk seem like the enemy, when city dwellers don’t even give rural people much thought, except when they themselves long for a more pastoral existence. Think about how many New Yorkers dream about moving to the country and owning organic farms.

[Tesha]

34. Creating divisions works for the neo-conservatives

I saw this quote the other day in a newsletter from the UK.

“People are pretty much alike. It’s only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.”
American journalist Linda Ellerbee

[Javaman]

35. politicians must keep us divided.

if we every unified, they would be out of jobs.

[Kaleva]

36. About 75% of tfg voters in MI live in the urban or mostly urban counties

TFG outright won some of the more populated counties in MI in 2020

tfg wouldn't stand a chance if the majority of his vote came from rural areas.

[Wounded Bear]

37. Radio...specifically talk radio...

Radio stations in rural areas are cheap, and have been bought up by wealthy conservative types that promulgated shit like Rush Limbaugh babbling for hours about how "liberals" hate rural America.

Urbanites and suburbanites listen to FM music channels, not AM talk radio.

[doubleplusgood]

39. +1000

[Hortensis]

38. :) We know there are many millions of relatively open-minded Democrats

and those who lean at least socially liberal in rural areas, though fewer than urban, because we count them pretty accurately.

No secret, "dirty" or otherwise, that we'd like our urban children to visit more often than they do. "Working and raising children keeps them busy?" Pfffft! We make sure they think of us if they don't do it on their own, though.

[Rafi]

41. Goes both ways

Many rural folk believe cities are full of bad people.

[dawg]

42. Why stay here, when you could move to the city and have so many more opportunities?

1. You're scared of the "crime" and all of the scary people who live in the big city ... that skews conservative.

2. Your family is already rich, and you have all the opportunity you need ... that skews conservative.

3. You don't really have the skills and abilities to compete in the big city ... sadly, that skews conservative as well.

There are other reasons too, such as staying close to family, a more natural environment, and a slower pace of life. That's why rural areas aren't 100% Republican. But most of the young liberals that these areas produce end up moving away. The rest of us are like a 30% or so remnant.

[BlackSkimmer]

44. This doesn't apply to many of us who grew up in southern states.

I grew up in a city, but rural life was never far away.

It really still isn't for those who want to find it.

[Joe Nation]

45. Thanks everyone!

Great perspectives. There is no one size fits all experience here. At the same time, there is no shortage of those that would seek to divide us from our fellow Americans for their own interests.

[GusBob]

47. Rural folks are lambasted on this very forum regularly

LOL just last week in a discussion of this matter a poster replied "rural living sucks" It was claimed without proof that Rural Dems get "rocks thrown at them" and "run off the road" by their redneck neighbors in that thread. Would you agree that is the case?

last Fall in another discussion of this nature, an OP which started "Fuck Rural Voters" and went south from there, and received tons of recs and replies of the same nature, pretty much knocking rural folks around with venom (including one from the OWNER of this website himself!) Only myself and 2 or 3 other posters replied dissent. Because, fact is, there are very few rural posters on DU.

I think you are mistaken and are not paying much attention to the crowd here.

[Act_of_Reparation]

49. This is a funny little place, isn't it?

There are a lot of folks who are liberal in their politics, but very conservative (i.e. rigid) in their attitudes. I'm certainly guilty of that myself sometimes.

It's compounded by the fact that there are also a number of posters jockeying for status within the group, which is why we get ridiculous, performative shit like the "fuck rural voters" threads.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

51. I've never lived in a city, or even a small town. I'm glad folks like to live in cities. nt

[Deep State Witch]

52. People in Rural Areas

Look down on city-dwellers as well. Especially those of different colors.

[BannonsLiver]

53. I think it's real and probably under reported on by the national political media

Who covers our politics exclusively from a red v blue horse race lens. Regardless, the country is mostly governed by rural voters. The reason Dems will never win statewide office again in my state is because of rural voters, not voters in blue cities in an otherwise red state.