Via-WU Blog
Recently there have been quite a few articles (by liberal commentators) that the Republican Party is becoming a regional party specifically a Southern Party. They of course write these things in order to disparage the Republicans and also Southerners. In their minds the South is filled with dumb red neck hicks the vast majority of which in their imaginations are racist.
The truth is that both the Republicans and the Democrats are losing membership as more and more Americans identify themselves as Independents. So it really does not matter whether or not the Republicans are stronger in the south than the north or west, what matters is which party can sway the Independents.
However the idea that Republicans are only a party that appeals to southerners is not only absurd, it is not born out by the facts, facts that the Democrats ignore to their peril.
Actually there is a real geographic division between the parties or more accurately their political philosophies, but it has less to do with regions of the country, but rather it has to do with population centers.
Remember that Obama won by over 5% popular vote and a landslide in the Electoral vote, but you would not get that impression by looking at that map now would you? Also take into account that this is probably the best this type of map has looked for a Democrat since 1976.
So what is the geographical difference in the parties or as I said their philosophies? Rural versus urban and it has little to do with the region of the country. Look at Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana states that sent thousands of their sons to their deaths in the Civil War to end slavery, not exactly southern states. The vast geographical area of those states voted for McCain yet Obama won all three states, again you would not know it looking at the map. As usual and as it has been for my entire life the rural areas of the country predominately support a more conservative candidate. Note also Oklahoma, Kansas,Nebraska, both Dakotas and Montana all states that Obama did not carry they too would not be considered southern in either location or culture, if that even applies any longer. No the geographic divide in political philosophy is primarily between rural and urban with suburbia the battleground. Why?
I have been blessed to live in several varied areas of our great country, north, south and in between. I have lived in big cities, rural areas, suburbs and now I live in a small town in a rural county which is still ten times more populated than the rural county I lived in for more than a decade. All this has led me to conclude that political philosophies can be attributed to the local garbage dump, or more accurately how your garbage gets there. Let me explain.
If you are truly rural there is no such thing as trash pick up, you haul it yourself. You keep a few cans around and once a week or so you haul it to the local dump or a collection site. It is part of the rural life, people in the country pretty much have to do more for themselves, be more self-sufficient the dump just being an example, but a good example. Why do country folks have pickup trucks? Garbage….and getting around in snow and hauling firewood and a hundred other tasks that city folks seldom if ever consider.
If you live in an area like I do now which in a sense is suburbia just without a big city near by it is sort of in between. I can either haul my trash to the dump or I can pay a fee to a contractor sub contracted by the county to come pick it up, the choice is mine. I used to haul my own now I pay, but if the economy keeps sliding, I may just make dump runs again. Pretty much everything I need is near by, there is a mall twenty minutes away yet I can’t recall getting stuck in traffic for more than a few minutes since I have lived here. Kind of the best of both worlds actually.
Now in a city trash is not an option, it is a tax. The local government comes pick up your trash and you have no choice in the matter really, you pay it in taxes and they provide the service. The bigger the population center the more government that is needed to meet the needs of the population. In big cities, especially inner cities having a car less alone a truck might be more of a burden than a blessing. The larger the population center the more a person depends on the government for basic needs and services whether they like the government or trust it-they depend on it. Life in a city is about understanding and using the systems that are necessary for daily life and the systems are controlled one way or the other by the government.
These differences in the way you live, how you are raised your whole outlook on your very life experiences is what shapes your philosophy of life and politics. For a city dweller the idea that big government controls much of your life is not frightening it is necessary and in many ways reassuring. After all how will you get to work if they don’t plow the streets? What will you do if someone is breaking into your apartment and there is not a cop close by? For a rural person the idea of a government entity interfering with your freedom and self sufficient life style is abhorrent and unnatural. Put it in four wheel drive and bust through the snow drifts and in the rare case where someone is stupid enough to threaten your family or your home, well that’s why God created guns right?
Of course this is not a l00% rule, there are rural liberals and urban conservatives but basically this as a general rule is true. I suspect that more often than not the exceptions to the rule have more to do with transplants than those born and raised in these two environments.
Then we have suburbia where the two cultures meet and more importantly this is where they merge. Like me and my garbage choices, I can choose to be self-sufficient or I can depend on the government. It is not surprising that the growth of the political Independent has blossomed and grown at the exact same period of history as suburbs have blossomed and grown. Prior to the Fifties there was no such thing as a political Independent you were either a Republican or a Democrat. Prior to the Fifties there was really no such thing as a suburb either.
What does this all mean? I’m not sure but I suspect that as time goes on the two cultures will merge more and more. We will depend on government more because like it or not there will be more of us. What is going on now is the age old struggle of whether the people will control that government or whether that government will control the people. Rural people see this more clearly because they appreciate their freedom more than the city folk because to be frank rural people are freer and more self-sufficient because …well the dump doesn’t come to them.
Regardless the struggle has nothing to do with north and south, it is about the suburbs as unexciting as that may seem. It certainly has very little to do with race and the more that people attempt to make it about that, the more offensive it is to those who cherish freedom-for everyone.
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