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?
It is not "urban centers". It is high crime areas. :)
My daughter asked me the same question this morning!
I also would appreciate reading the replies.
Values
I wonder the same thing. I'm interested in what others have to say. I hope this gets alot of replies.
most people living and voting in cities live off the gobment?
before you attack... I said living and voting, not living and working.
Massah, take care o' me
There's something in the Star Bucks. V's Wife.
rural - indepandant, gun owners, private property is a big issue
Most unions are located in urban areas.
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.
Robert Heinlein
And it isn't just the U.S. - a number of other countries with representative governments show this pattern.
We got a winner!!!!!
See about Sodom and Gommorrah, "In the Beginning."
cities have more youth/singles, alternative (ahem) lifestyles(PC for bohemian wannabe slackers) with high school and even college educations who expect, feel entitled to walk right out of school into a CEO leather back chair. Most ruralites start working the minute their pitter pattering feet hit the ground.
mass hysteria-insanity.
Exactly. They can't feel safe there and think the government can keep them safe if only it enacts tons of new laws limiting their neighbors' actions.
Houston mainly voted Republican. There were a couple of Democratic pockets.
Answer is not that diffucult.
Urban people are generally used to a 'herd' mentality, having basic services (including cooking) provided for them, never having to take care of a piece of property, having to fit into pre-concieved molds of 'society', not having to solve a lot of problems that we rural 'rugged individualists' do every day. How's that so far?
Dependency on government services.
Because urban areas are filled with people who had rather ride in the wagon than pull it. They prefer not to work and let us support them with our taxes.
Because urban folk think meat comes out of a plastic wrapper. Think about it.
Rural or suburban = those who actually produce and have money confiscated by the government to give to the urban population so they will vote for the liberals who gave it to them.
It's the difference between "my fault" and "everyone else's fault".
I never thought of it - but to me this seems to be the best answer so far.
If black voters voted like normal Americans, that wouldn't be the case. In Michigan, the black vote is 15%. Kerry's 90 percent or higher take of that 15 % is likely the reason MI is Blue. And of course, lots and lots of fraud.
Most urban areas, for instance, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are run by Union thugs. They control the teachers unions, the cops and the fire departments.
The elite liberal democrats have worked hard to keep them "on the plantation".
Surely you must be kidding or else you are simply putting out feelers to see if anyone will tell you the truth.
"Urban centers" are, for the most part, inhabited by minorities. Minorities vote Dumbocrat. Case in point: Washington, D.C. voted in the 90% range for stupid.
The other "urban centers" are not as "minoritized" as D.C. so the percentages will fall but still be in the high percentile.
The truth. Union members and "African American" voters.
Independent self-feeders live where they want.
Good question, M.Peach. Wish I had answers :-)
i have been thinking the same thing today. its really only a concentration of blue counties in states that make them blue. there are many other counties in those states that are red. i know here in nyc there is large amount of public assistance. there are also a lot of senior citizens. then you have plenty of blacks, jews and other minorities. there are also a lot of criminals. the weirdos in manhattan are hippies that are artistic or something else not dealing with reality.
i guess people living outside the cities should be thankful that they act like magnets for the undesirables in this country.
These are also the same people that don't care about what is happening in the Sudan!
For the same reason that Penn State will never have a good basketball team.
Blacks tend to be urban dwellers.
Handouts.
Because urban folk think meat comes out of a plastic wrapper. Think about it.
lol! :)
It's an evolution of patronage and the subversion of the system at the ward level which is the historic province of the Democratic party.
The Democrats have always had a less-than-stellar respect for the franchise. They treat it as a form of currency, to be controlled and doled out to those they favor. This evolved throughout the 20th century with the largesse-campaign-vote cycle that centered around welfare.
They buy votes with money in the form of 'entitlements'. It is a simple and odious evolution of patronage since it makes the patron the Master and the voter into a slave.
Democrats buy votes with threats of mob agitation and promises of free lunch. Of course, throwing in a bit of class envy for all to indulge in as they indoctrinate their starving audience in class warfare is just considered 'light' entertainment.
In short, the cities vote Democrat because the people there have either been bribed, been titillated with hate, been bought outright, or have been told they have no hope but the Party.
Actually, now that I've summarized it - I am struck with the hideous, precise evil of it all.
In the book "The Bell Curve" one can learn of several factors which correlate highly, including.
Low IQ, unemployment, crime, prison, out of wedlock births, etc. These tend to cluster in certain urban centers.
Thus democrats can be found in centers of low IQ.
In contrast, people in urban areas are generally dependent on others for just about everything. They are not very self-sufficient. Most city folk I know can't even change a tire. They call AAA when they get a flat. They expect the government to plow their roads, fix their potholes and run city buses for transportation. Without these government services, they would be lost. So they respond favorably to politicians who promise more of this type of thing and they tend to vote against any politician that speaks of "cuts" and "downsizing" of government freebies.
I think it has something to do with living in the midst of covenience. Personally I think it would be a good thing to cut the cities off from their convenience for a few days every so often. It might serve as a powerfull reminder that they can't survive without flyover America.
I've thought about this a few times myself.
I think that people in rural areas tend to be much more in touch with nature, and nature, itself, tends to bring about an appreciation of and respect for a creator, making us much more amenable to accepting that there are moral laws, as well as natural.
The choice of where one lives, as well, might indicate a certain amount of ruggedness or independence - or lack therof.
On the flip side, urbanites really do have some values as well, but they are based much more upon relationship, as these skills are important in a large city.
This overvaluation of realationship based values might make one much more inclined to dialectical thinking, which had it's roots in socialism to begin with.
That's about the best way I can figure it.
Alternatively, maybe city folk are just all messed up. Why else would they opt to live in such cesspools to begin with?
Griz
As an urbanite and former liberal, I'll tell you why.
2 words. Scare tactics.
Pretty much, if a Republican wins, automatically, they think that how they're going to be victims of racist conspiracies.
to be apolitical - the reason is simple - compare the large cities with beehives or ant colonies - they require a communist/socialist organization simply to survive - they know NOTHING else.
A friend of mine, one of the last remaining WWII vets, was a tank commander in Europe during that war. He recounted stories of the farmers in the country dumping rotted foodstuffs because they had so much extra --- but --- less than a mile away, in the cities, people were starving to death.
WHY? The city dwellers were the socialists/communists who had known nothing but being provided for by a centralized govt. They could not even figure out that food is grown on farms and the farms were just outside their city limits.
Were they "evil commies"? no! They were simply ignorant, bred and raised to be a cog on a wheel.
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