I honestly don't get the connection between rural America and the Republican Party.
Somebody has been hornswoggled.
Or perhaps more correctly, societal mores in rural populations are liable to be a few years out of date, and the more "hip" urban notions are seen as "woke" and out of step with society at large...bringing the stragglers along into a brave new world has always been the burden of the avant-garde.
I couldn't agree more. I think, having lived in rural America, urban America, and suburban America, there is a continuum of progress that you have correctly diagnosed.
Rural Americans like things to remain as they are, or think they do. But, they have no sensibility about how
others feel about it. "That's how we've always done it" or "if it was good enough for my father, it's good enough for me" are constant refrains in those communities. Forget about thinking about how the needs in a city might be different than they are in rural communities. The mythology of rugged individualism runs very strong, and often for good reason. When I drove truck, the solution to any breakdown was to find a "good ol' boy" to fix it, because that self-sufficiency meant they knew how to jerry-rig just about anything into operation. Actual
repairs, well, that's a different matter.
It's the red-blue divide, but written by population density. There are few States of the Union that don't have a liberal city center in their midst, and they are pretty consistently
governed by a Democratic Mayor. Lincoln, Nebraska; Witchita, Kansas; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona - even Boise, Idaho. Red America's cities are Blue.
