What city(s) AREN’T Democrat because for some reason, the Left takes them all over?
American liberalism tends to be based around the philosophy of using government and regulation to better control how people interact, while American conservatism tends to be based around reducing government intervention, leaving people alone, and allowing and expecting people to handle things on their own.
In urban environments, where people live at close quarters, and their impacts on their neighbors is obvious. This makes it natural to see rules as important to allow people to live together in relative peace and harmony.
In rural environments People feel more independent and less impacted by those around them. There’s a sense that you have to fend for yourself, that you can rely on your family and close friends, and that’s about it. And how other people live doesn’t obviously impact your life, to the same degree.
Also we have positive reinforcement, so conservative rural areas become more conservative as that is all you hear while liberal areas become more liberal as that is all they hear.
once urbanites start to become more liberal, and rural people become more conservative, that feeds on itself. Conservative people in big cities and liberals in small towns tend to keep their opinions to themselves, which means they have less opportunity to influence others, and promotes the idea that the local politics are universal, and no one you can understand would think differently. And people who either can’t keep their mouths shut, or don’t want to live in that environment, have a lot of incentive to get out. Rural people who are inclined to liberalism have particular motivation to move to an urban area where they can be around like-minded people. Urban conservatives aren’t quite as likely to move to the country, but it does happen. Particularly when people retire or are otherwise no longer so tied to employment.
And so political views get tied to geography and community, and eventually people think of the other political party as not just an opposing set of ideas, but as a different tribe, of people who are fundamentally different from us. Democrats don’t just disagree with us, they’re a bunch of effete, latte-sipping left coast academics who don’t know what real work is. Republicans don’t have different political beliefs, they’re a bunch of uneducated racist hicks who aren’t smart enough to know what’s best for them.
Politics goes from being philosophical or practical to being tribal. Which is, I think, one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a country. And yet, here we are.
You see the same in social media only accelerated.
Liberals stick to groups that only post incidents from their point of view, over and over again, so they are surprised when they hear another view.