I have thought for some years now that the true divide in the nation is exactly as the author states it: urban/suburban/college town, and the rest of the country. And it breaks down this way in pretty much every state. As a former neo-Marxist from the late seventies/early eighties I saw this pattern emerging way back then. It really comes down to the fact that one party appeals to those who want serious redistribution of income with a much more pacifistic stance on the world stage, and the other party appeals more to the tradition values of our society and for allowing individual businesses grow the economy and provide the jobs. Big city politicians and university professors are not net job creators. Most of the time they succumb to erroneous “zero-sum” thinking in economics. The rabble in the cities and universities hate having to fight wars. I’ve seen how Communist activists I once knew worked at strategies to rope in these dopes – the kids who don’t want to fight for their country and the welfare-dependent losers.
Family voting traditions do indeed play a large role in this, but sometimes the kids slip the bonds of tradition. I come from a family of die-hard, Democratic voters. I didn’t vote for a Republican until I was in my late forties. My parents are still alive and it does eat at them that half their kids vote Republican now.
I’m not from the Midwest. I live in the Northeast. However, this article was a very interesting read. I wish the author had done a longer in-depth article about more of his experiences traveling the Upper Midwest. I will say this about Michigan: that state is a case study in how NOT to cope with economic decline. Instead of keeping taxes low and finding ways to make it economically worthwhile for businesses in the state to expand, or for other companies to come in to Michigan, THEY KEEP TAXES HIGH AND EVEN RAISE THEM. Michigan and Minnesota are also plagued by some significant Muslim populations in their urban areas, which I am sure is no boon to Republicans.
