A look at the Urban-Rural Divide
by Bruce Yernberg
I’m an urban guy. Growing up in central Duluth our playgrounds were alleys. The neighborhood was working class and union. We shared our apples … bruises and all. My friends, as well as I, were boomers and born Democrats.
My last move was to SE Minnesota. No alleys and few Democrats.
After the election in 2020 it finally hit me. Minnesota has 87 counties. An overwhelming majority of these counties voted Republican. Why? Are Minnesotans that much different from each other? In some ways, yes. My effort to find out why started in 2020.
I started to pay special attention to local non-metro conversations. I read various non-metro public meeting minutes of school boards, city councils and county boards. Of great interest to me was the fact that most farmers are Republicans. Jeepers no class of people receives as much per-capita from Uncle Sam as farmers do. Hourly wages in the many small towns in the rural areas are in the poverty range. If it wasn’t for the high taxes the Democratic metro areas pay into the state coffers, these rural families wouldn’t have the subsidies for their health insurance. According to the SOS’s office the poorest rural county in Minnesota voted republican.
What gives? Why are we so different politically from our rural brothers and sisters? Here is a list I came up with … in no particular order:
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Democrats have done a poor (p*** poor) job of messaging.
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Distrust of government. Except their own GOP locals. Don’t tell me what to do!
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Rural citizens fear local retribution if they have a differing more liberal view.
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Urban crime
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Abortion views
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School lunch program except as required or offered for the field hands and the rural kids.
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Rural self-reliance/self-sufficiency … we can do it on our own (as long as we get the subsidies)
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Urban problems are not our problems.
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We don’t need unions. We take care of our workers. Business owners decide what is best.
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Taxes … rural vs metro. A rural resident told me that the metro area has too many roads that they don’t need except when they go to the Fair.
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We don’t need pre-school.
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Health insurance high cost … they blame it on the metro.
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And of course guns! It is a racial deal for them. Sad.
The above is not conclusive.
Since retirement I have been honored to serve with a few progressive retiree groups. Just think if each progressive retire group out there took just one of the above and worked to find similarities between urban and rural political views; I am sure we could find some common progressive thoughts. There is much to do. Perhaps facts can prevail.
Respectfully,
Bruce Yernberg