Although true to a large extent, I think the malady is more specific than this.
In his "Cross of Gold" speech (at the National Democrat Convention in 1896), William Jennings Bryan said:
... the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.
In most rural areas of the coasts (excluding the big cities) you find the outnumbered and beleaguered conservatives. It is the paternalistic, elitist, libertine philosphies of the large cities which grow Liberals like toxic mold in a petri dish.
Peggy Noonan lives in New York. she would encounter the same Liberal bigotry in Chicago.
While there appears to be a preponderance of libs in big cities, I would submit that the same could be achieved in rural areas if one could shred the family and create government dependence. In fact, I think we're beginning to see some of that in suburban areas. The latter seems to be tipping liberal in many places as we see increased familial breakdown, coupled with urban liberals moving into the suburbs to 'get away from it all'.....
You're thoughts?