Posted on 11/03/2004 6:23:56 PM PST by M. Peach
I thought I had all the answers regarding politics until my one of my teen aged sons asked me (and yes, I'm proud to say both of them are conservative) why large cities tend to vote Democrat, and rural areas - or mostly the rest of the country, Republican?
Can I get some opinions out there?
That's Why RUDY G could be a great national contender he won Twice in NYC ,Running against Dinkins,one of the worst mayors ever
Question for all: Are liberals hick-o-phobic ?
The answer is actually multi-dimensional. For starters, it is a well known fact among linguists that small populations tend to preserve features of earlier language and dialect forms than larger population areas do. Perhaps a better word is "conserve" rather than "preserve." This feature, I believe, translates over to other areas of human life, though, including religious beliefs, moral values, and culture. Smaller communities tend to conserve earlier standards better than larger ones do.
Now, as many people realize as they get older, "newer" does not necessarily mean "better." In fact, the older I get, the more I believe that fewer and fewer "new" ways of doing things are better than the old ways.
And then there is the matter of self-reliance. Individualism. People who live in small, rural communities, don't have the "benefits" of the interconnectedness of large urban communities, where most everybody within these urban environments has their own special niche in the big machine. In the rural setting, most folks have to know quite a bit about just about everything. Ask a farmer, for example. You'll find out the average farmer not only knows a lot about crops, breeds, and how to grow and raise them, but he or she also knows how to repair most of the equipment that they use, fix the house or barn and the truck, and just about everything else. This is common in rural areas. These folks are independent and self reliant. They think for themselves. They don't like or trust big government, thus by definition, they are conservative, whether republican or democrat.
Just about the only "specialists" I have found in rural communities, except doctors and lawyers, are transplants from the big city who decide to "get away from it all" so they can express their "inner artist" as they attempt to be creative in an alien environment. Usually doesn't work until a whole bunch of other city dwellers move out into the sticks to join them, bringing all their wacked out city values and liberalism with them. But then it isn't rural anymore. Often these areas become gentrified, as the urbanites buy up properties, driving up real estate values (and taxes) for the locals, who as a result, resent the urbanites all the more. And adhere even more strongly to their conservative values.
Well, that's the way I see it.
But -- shshshsh, don't tell anybody. For some strange reason, Houston seems to stay off the national radar, and guess what? We like it that way. This place is big enough :)
Houston is a sprawled out city. It is covers 620 square miles of land. Twice the size of New York. Inside the loop is urban. Outside the loop is more suburban. The further away from the loop, more suburban. The loop leans Democratic. Outside the loop leans Republican.
Very nice reply - Your first paragraph is a unique explanation no one has mentioned. Very interesting and provacative. Thanks for you insight.
The other way around really. Houston's size comes primarily from the city itself, not the outlying areas. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States, and the largest city in Texas. However, what most people don't know is that the Houston GMA is smaller than the Dallas/Fort Worth GMA. 7 of the 10 largest cities in Texas are part of the DFW metroplex.
I'll bite, what whacked out city values would those be? I lived in rural East Texas for 10 years. We lived in a town of 882, that was 50 miles from a city of over 10,000 and 90 miles from a city of over 100,000. Going to the doctor was an all day event.
I hated every moment we spent there, and only stayed because my father-in-law's health was poor and my wife wanted to be near him. It was a joyous day when we packed up the kids and moved back to a real city.
That stuff about small towns being friendly? Ha! The people in Dallas are 10x more friendly, and not nearly as cliquish.
The differences with the locals in tiny town wasn't along political lines, although I'm a Republican, and there were no Republicans in county office. The real differences were about recreation. If you don't hunt, fish, or live for Friday night football games, you might as well have leprosy.
Worse, if you prefered books to Stalone movies and Harley Davidsons to 4 wheelers, you were a suspected communist.
That doesn't sound like a very small town to me. My oldest daughter graduated from a rural HS, and her graduating class wasn't 105, it wasn't even 15, it was 12. Then again, we were probably close to 200 miles from a city that had a sports team, not 30. We were close to 90-100 from a city of 100,000. You don't know how many things you can only do in a city of that size, until you don't live in one.
Of the $1.1 trillion in Federal, State, and local government transfers to individuals in 2001, $214 billion went to nonmetro residents and $897 billion went to metro residents. On a per capita basis, nonmetro residents got more transfers than metro residents, $4,375 vs. $3,798. With per capital income of $22,391 in nonmetro areas and $32,077 in metro areas, government transfers account for 20 percent of nonmetro and 12 percent of metro income.
Anectdotally, it holds up as well. In HS, a large number of my daughter's friends in tiny town (pop 882) seemed to wind up pregnant and on welfare, and truth to tell, there was only crowd in that HS because it was too small to split into cliques. Must have done something right. Daughter is now 26, married to a police officer, and is pregnant with her 1st.
Of the $1.1 trillion in Federal, State, and local government transfers to individuals in 2001, $214 billion went to nonmetro residents and $897 billion went to metro residents. On a per capita basis, nonmetro residents got more transfers than metro residents, $4,375 vs. $3,798. With per capital income of $22,391 in nonmetro areas and $32,077 in metro areas, government transfers account for 20 percent of nonmetro and 12 percent of metro income.
Wrong, welfare rolls are higher in rural areas than urban ones.
Nope, rural residents are more likely to be on welfare than their urban counterparts. Government transfers account for 20 percent of nonmetro and 12 percent of metro income. The ugly truth is that rural areas are more dependant on government than metro areas. Add things like farm subsidies into the mix and it gets even uglier.
One significant factor is that cities are largely controlled by old time corrupt Dem machines combined with the economic failure of said machine. Cities that have had Republican administrations fare better economically. So, the residents are kept in dependancy (some would say slavery).
More union workers. Higher concentration of poor living on the dole...
In cities, people use the anonymity of numbers to screw people in business, and (for some) lying is a way of life. Not much to compare to.
In rural areas, the basics are never taken for granted, and are commonly self-provided, (well water, septic system, garden, dig out your own road when it snows, have a generator if the power goes out, etc.). This makes for an ability to identify critical issues immediately, and let the rest slide until critical items are taken care of. Common sense must prevail, in some areas your life depends on it.
Urban folks tend to have a different set of priorities and ideas about what is necessary.
These seminal differences make for a different set of priorities.
Also, when, at times, it is you and God who get your butt out of the snowdrift at 30 below, you feel a little closer to the Creator, and tend to listen a trifle better to His standards.
Not so amidst the towers of babble.
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