On Feb 4, 2010, at 10:41 AM, Marv Gandall wrote:
> I wouldn't have thought this was controversial. Look at the
> electoral map in any advanced capitalist country and it's pretty
> clear that liberal and socialist parties have historically drawn
> their strength from the working class in the large cities while
> parties on the right have typically appealed to more conservative
> farmers, small town merchants and bankers, and their employees. I
> recall posting 2008 election return data to the list some time back
> showing this to be the case, with few exceptions, even in those
> states where the Republicans have been the stronger party. The
> influx of successive generations of immigrant workers into the
> cities has always deepened this cleavage.
I don't know about anyplace else, but there's an additional issue with the U.S. (which James also finds deeply annoying): a lot of people move to thinly populated areas because they don't like being around people not like themselves. That correlates with conservative politics.
Doug