I think 75 or 100 years ago the country was just as divided between rural and city as today. The difference is the 24/7 news cycle and the fact that there is just not that much to talk, pontificate about...so they turn debate into entertainment
With the 24/7 news far to many have bought into the notion that this county is homogeneous and we just need to get along. In my view nothing can be further from the truth, as long as we are Americans we will muddle through. Most folks are not the loons of the left or right but in our system we need both. They define and set the parameters of the debate which is how we have always done it...
Maybe you haven't kept up with current events...
The inner city is composed of people who don't work and spend there days engaged in crime of some sort. Nothing good or productive comes out of it. There is no political viewpoint beyond give me more free stuff. If they attend a church at all it is to hear about how oppressed they are. Those people rule this nation and set direction because they have the media to peddle their viewpoint and their political leaders are thugs with no respect for the rule of law.
The suburbs and rural areas consist of people who get up every morning and go to work. They get up on Sunday and go to real churches where they are exhorted to be moral, generous, and hardworking. These people have been utterly marginalized. Even when the candidates they elect win, they only manage about a 10% reduction in the rate of growth of government that the former group wants to provide their free stuff.
This narrative that we are just groups with different viewpoints that need to compromise is utterly fraudulent.
The latter group comprises a functioning, prosperous nation. The former group is a dysfunctional third world hellhole sucking blood from the carotid artery of the latter.
Keep negotiating and making your compromises, but you are starting to look awfully pale. You aren't going to muddle through this.