Chris Douglas at First Republicans Forum has a good post on what I view as the devolution of the Republican Party. Over the past few decades, the GOP has lost many of its Yankee Republicans as it has become the party of the Southern Conservative.
What was the Yankee Republican? Pro-business, pro-personal responsibility, pro-tolerance, and pro-progress.
. . .
As the Republican Party has moved nationally from Northern Yankee to Southern Conservative in character, it has begun to repel forward-looking people. As the Party slides to the South, perhaps it is we who should be standing athwart it saying “stop” and instead begin directing it back to the Northern roots from which its success in Indiana grew.
Yeah, except that those red counties don’t have any population.
I lived in Genesee County, with you can see on that map is the Red county between Buffalo and Rochester in Western New York. It had a population of like 60k people or something. The town I grew up in on Long Island had more people than that.
Contrast that to, say, Erie County, where Buffalo is, which has like 1M people or so.
All the counties that have all the population are all heavily Democrat.
Right, but why is that?
Look at other “blue” states and you’ll see the same thing. Illinois is because of Chicago, Minnesota is because of the Twin Cities, California is because of the big cities, etc. If Indiana goes blue this fall, it will be because of the Region and Indianapolis; not the rest of the state.
Re rural-red versus urban-blue:
I think historically you’ll find that rural populations have almost always tended to be more traditional and urban populations have tended to be more progressive. For this post, I’m trying to use those terms in a neutral sense. Whatever the status quo is; rural populations are less likely to want to change it.
I don’t know why this should be, necessarily, but I would speculate that it has to do with being exposed to more people which, by definition, is more the case with urban populations than rural populations. In urban populations, you’ll be more likely to see people doing things in non-traditional ways, more than occasionally with positive results.
In addition, I suspect it’s harder to bring to bear social pressure to conform in an urban setting. Due to the larger population in an urban setting, there is more anonymity and more potential social groups.
In any event, currently the Republicans hold the conservative mantle and are perceived as being more likely to preserve traditional ways of doing things.
That’s my theory anyway.
Jason,
It’s because all the rugged individualists are too busy trying to figure out how best to kill anyone who dares set foot within 5000 yards of their fortified compound to have any time left to worry about how to, you know, actually get along with their neighbors on terms any friendlier than a Mexican standoff.
Like the Libertarians, I lament the disappearance of frontiers on our planet–but not quite for the same reason. The Libertarians long for trackless wildernesses where a man could pan for gold, prospect for oil, and shoot anyone who got in his way (as long he wasn’t outnumbered or outgunned, that is).
I mourn the absence of frontiers because these wannabe self-made men are deprived of the opportunity to learn for themselves that, gee, maybe there’s something to that whole commonweal concept after all. After all, they’ve already demostrated an utter lack of ability to learn from history. They’ve just gotta go out there and break a limb, get bitten by a cottonmouth, or come down with an infection they can’t diagnose and haven’t a clue how to treat. Either they die, and Darwin wins, or they rediscover, wide-eyed and with no sense of chagrin or shame, that–whoa, man is a social animal. Maybe your right to swing your fist stops somewhere well short of your neighbor’s nose.
Where Libertarians of my dad’s generation had Howard Roark and John Galt as iconic heroes, today’s Libertarians are likely to anoint Daniel Plainview.
They will do so with no sense of irony, and, having interpreted 10% of the character, will prove utterly impervious to any argument that there’s another 90% to study.
The prevelance of public employees explains all.
Cities have lots of public employees, who are VERY motivated to get their candidates, Democrats to a one, elected.
Rural areas don’t have much in the way of government. Thus, no public employees, and nobody who is very motivated to get Democrats elected.
Public employees are the root of all evil. Bully for Mitch for throwing the public employee unions out of state government.
Wow, this debate makes my vagina diaries look boring . . .
You know, even if I agreed with the policies of the Republicans (and I decidedly do not) I would never join that club. Republicans are bullies, pure and simple.
Bullies suck.
Suzie,
Wavy.
And, for anyone “silly” enough to allow theselves to be dragged to Joe’s Crab Shack on their birthday, no sympathy for you!
Doug’s just been smokin’ lately, here at Masson’s Blog hasn’t he? (Take that out of context.
Buzzcut,
That’s an interesting point you make. The difference in the percentage of public sector employees for rural vs. urban localities.
Offhand, I would posit that per capita, rural areas have more public sector employees than urban areas.
A) They are usually just more “transparent” (or, that you never see them working).
B) They meet in closed, smoke-filled rooms trying their “best” to avoid Sunshine Laws.
Sometime, when I either have nothing else better to do, or when Republicans quit whining, I may just try to test that theory out.
Bullies suck.
Especially when they’re obnoxious and unpersuasive.
Republicans are mean too. Michelle Obama said so.
Urban areas are dependent on more services, so they’re more drawn toward a philosophy of the government being capable of providing things, like bridges and road, water, security, etc.
Rural folk are more used to doing it themselves, so they’re more likely to buy into having the government be less involved in such things, smaller, etc.
At least in theory. Never mind the current government being the biggest ever. They at least are excelling in incompetence, which rings true with their philosophy.
I live in a rural area. I haul my own trash. I’ve found law enforcement to be useless in mediating problems like my neighbor driving drunk across my lawn or making inappropriate/scary comments to my wife, so I have had to have those discussions with the guy myself. The meth lab next door existed for years after it was reported to authorities. So I don’t get too fired up about local government issues and am as likely to vote Republican as Democrat for local government because it just doesn’t matter. I just don’t take that mindset to a state or national level like a lot of rural voters do.
Let’s not overlook the blue that university cities will splash onto red states. If the 18-30 age ‘kids’ vote commensurate with their registration,we’ll have very fascinating new voting patterns.
Historically this age group hasn’t voted at high percentages.Indiana has several major places of higher learning.Could Indiana become a blue state? The new Democratic voting coalition seems to be blacks coupled with the youth vote.We’ve never seen that combination before.Women also generally vote more democratic than men,because they value social legislation, but it’s not clear how many will remain in a snit against Obama.That will depend on H. Clinton.
It’s going to be a fascinating election.
Urban areas are dependent on more services, so they’re more drawn toward a philosophy of the government being capable of providing things, like bridges and road, water, security, etc.
That’s not what I said. That’s NOT why they’re blue. I’ve lived in Republican run suburbs around NYC, Buffalo, and Chicago, and they’re much better run than the Democrat areas. The level of service is not the issue.
My point is that public employee unions are effectively a machine in the traditional sense, except that instead of party bosses, you have union bosses. The public employees drive the Democrat party to victory, because they have a heck of a lot more invested in winning than the traditional Republican coalitions do.
Pretty much every Republican ‘burb I’ve lived in has trended Democrat over time. I think that the public employees are pushing that trend.
Munster is Republican for now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it trended Democrat in the future.
Women also generally vote more democratic than men,because they value social legislation,
Well, the real issue is that Republicans are mean bullies. And bullies suck.
It all started going downhill when women got the vote, I tells ya.
T, you need to look into my favorite toy this week, the DPMS AR-15. $700 at Cabelas. Road trip it to Hammond and get one.
Let your DUI/ meth-head neighbors see you walking around with one of those over your shoulder. That should fix all your problems. Don’t even buy bullets!
But it’s more fun with the bullets. I’d imagine that you could shoot it in your yard. I’m jealous.
Believe it or not, Buzzcut, but T is already packing heat.
Yeah, I couldn’t shoot much in my yard either; unless I really, really want to hit a neighbor’s house.
T,
Very well thought-out explanation. I’m sure like everything else, there are many reasons “why”, such as income / education / etc.
On the whole, though, I see a lot of credit to that idea.
Believe it or not, Buzzcut, but T is already packing heat.
Every good Hoosier should.
Remember I’m the one with the loud “assault weapon ban” AR-15.
When drunken neighbor is plinking away with his .38 next door, I am tempted to fire the AR-15 or M-1 Garand into the back hillside just to demonstrate what a real gun sounds like. But dad taught me not to be obnoxious with them, and why alarm the rest of the neighbors who are just trying to enjoy the evening?
I understand the point you were making about services. I was making a different point, or offering a different explanation. Your explanation probably explains some meaningful percentage in elections–maybe enough to affect the results. I think my explanation applies to the mindset of the electorate in general, while yours explains how those voters become mobilized at election time.
Your presumption about what makes a good Hoosier is disturbing.
I wish my neighbor weren’t such a “good Hoosier”. All the gunfire makes the free-range dogs of the neighborhood bark. The pleasures of country living…
wait! If I vote Democrat, then I’ll be forced to divorce Doug and marry a woman while I am getting my mandatory abortion! Finally I see the light.
No statistics to offer that support your claim, Buzzcut?
Goddamn shocking, that.