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?
Actually I think it is that criminals tend to be demokrats.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
"Houston doesn't vote republican (not the city itself). The previous mayor (before the current liberal mayor) was a black carpet bagger liberal democrat and he got elected. The outer suburbs are republican, but the city is democrat."
2 words. Sheila Jackson.
What is a "normal American"?
Excellent mini-essay - did you steal any of this from Ann Coulter? This really makes sense.
Urban areas originally spawned social welfare programs. Unfortunately, many consider the entitlement mentality to have evolved from these programs. Out in the rural areas, our forefathers weren't bickering or complaining that government owed them something. Problems were solved by hard work and little dependency on government (not to say that government has never helped).
I believe that cities provide the anonymity necessary to behave without personal accountability.
By contrast, in a small town, or suburb, people often know who you are, who your family is, where you work, etc.
In the city, you're just another face. Or... just another gay man, godless individual, foul-mouthed neanderthal, woman that has an abortion, etc... No one "judges you" because there is no "you." You are anonymous.
Take away accountability, and people tend to do whatever they want, creating a moral and ethical enviornment that is much different than that of smaller communities.
IMHO, of course.
The reason why I was at first liberal was because everybody around me was liberal, and if you were conservative, you were seen as some sort of "race traitor."
Now that I've grown up, paid taxes and have spent 5 years away from public schools, I've simply seen liberalism for the crock that it is.
Generally speaking (and stereotyping of course), the rural folk are raised in a largely self reliant atmosphere with very little need nor desire for government or social assistance.
The opposite is true in densely populated areas (whether urban high crime or not). Densely populated areas simply rely more on a higher degree of governmental "management" and support.
What you write makes sense - I wonder if any study has been done pertaining to I.Q. and/or profession and how it correlates with one's choice of political parties?
Insanity is the norm so it's easy to align with socialist ideology and rhetoric.
Greater density and percentage of people who live off government largesse?
Believe it or not, this is a serious answer to your question. A friend from New York explained it to me a couple of years ago. She said that, basically, because the city of New York is (without question) one of, if not THE, centers of commerce and culture in the world, New Yorkers are raised to believe that it is a very special place and they are very special people. As she said, "We are taught from the day we are born that we are better than other people anywhere". She is not flamboyant, so I believe she was telling me the truth. As to California, it is similar, but with a slightly different twist (I lived there for years, so I can speak to this). There is a definite, deeply ingrained idea that we are smarter because we had the brains to "come in from the cold weather", i.e. anywhere that has four seasons. Believe it or not.
Urban centers vote Democrat because they are filled with democrat leaning minorities (Blacks, Dominican/Puerto Rican Hispanics, Jews, Homosexuals, Irish Catholics).
In the areas of urban centers that are filled with ordinary middle class white Protestants and Italian/German/Polish Catholics, the vote looks just like in rural areas.
Think Staten Island, Northeast Philadelphia, parts of Cincinatti, etc.
Urbanites - get their nails manicured.
Ruralites (is that a word?) cut and haul cedar.
U - never see an animal either give birth or die
R - watch the entire life cycle and understand it, participate in it
U - families are distant things
R - families are who you eat dinner with Sunday after church
U - pay $150,000 for an apartment (guessing on that price)
R - pay $150,000 for 20 acres
Just my first thoughts, not really fleshed out.
Like generally begets like. The brave people who set out on their own into the wilderness usually raised brave offspring; those who were afraid to leave the safety of numbers usually raised cowards who were afraid of their own shadows.
There are a lot of gays who live in the neighborhood. I KNOW gays gravitate to urban high-pop areas for the anonymity. It's tough being gay in a little town.
There are lots and lots and lots and lots of immigrants here in L.A. Yeah, I'm sure that they are living with some public assistance. On the other hand they live around people who have a lot ... in Los Angeles there are people who have nice jobs and a lot of money and flaunt it.
So I think proximity of living, immigrants, poverty-wealth.
BTW, when I was 20 I joined Head Start and lived in a little town of 5,000 people in AZ working on the White River Apache Reservation. Very different. Life is different in small towns.
"In the city, you're just another face. Or... just another gay man, godless individual, foul-mouthed neanderthal, woman that has an abortion, etc... No one "judges you" because there is no "you." You are anonymous. "
But you're not "Just another conservative." in the city. You're a 'Nazi", especially in Minneapolisgrad.
I should add that in days of old before the blacks had moved north from the south, northern non-Irish filled cities were Republican.
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