Why the massive rural/urban divide?

[Nym90]

I strongly disagree with the notion that Republicans are in favor of growth while Democrats oppose it. The two parties just disagree on how to bring about growth. Republicans favor increasing supply, while Democrats favor increasing demand.

In some ways, however, growth can certainly be undesireable (just ask anyone who has cancer...). Growth brings about change, and any change ultimately has both winners and losers. In fact, it's somewhat ironic that Republicans would be thought of as the more pro-growth of the two parties, since by definition a conservative should tend to oppose change, while a progressive would tend to be in favor of it.

So there are several different undercurrents on this issue. For people who are looking out for their own personal economic interests, clearly the Republican philosophy is more favorable to the wealthy, and the Democratic philosophy more favorable to the less well-off.

But philosophically, the two parties also disagree on how to bring about growth, as well as how to manage it and how to best direct it. I think that both ultimately want the same outcome (a strong economy), they just disagree about how to bring that about. Republicans favor putting more money into the pockets of the wealthy so as to boost supply, whereas Democrats favor putting more money into the pockets of the poor and working class so as to boost demand.

One other point I disagree quite strongly on is that people in rural areas are more tolerant than those in urban areas. While it is true that rural people can often be theoretically tolerant without having to live with the consequences of those views, the exact same thing is true for rural racists, as well. It is quite easy to be a racist when you never have any contact with people of the opposite race and thus never have your negative image of them sobered by reality.