that would depend on your definition of normal.
keep in mind, the left has been in control of those areas for decades.
they despise the 1950’s stereotypical America... and will attack it at every turn. don’t think so? play a quick game. picture something that would have been typical in America circa 1955... then ask yourself if the left has done anything to undermine, ridicule, or vilify it during the last 50 years.
This is true. And yet, the 1950s was an era of huge advances in every aspect of wellbeing - health, education, respect for human rights, artistic expression - everything went forward at a great pace.
The latest example of the "let's jeer at the 1950s" is the film Revolutionary Road. It is about a couple living in a large house in the suburbs, and having a family, and just about dying of the unhappiness because "we bought into this middle-class dream ..."
So true. Liberal policies have destroyed urban America.