"Small Town" Values?

[Storebought]

It works, though. Would a candidate win if they paraded their "big city" values?

It sure didn't for Al Smith in '28.

But most East Coast cities market themselves as being "tough" and "hard", so it stands to reason that running on urban East Coast values puts voters off.

For ex., New York City, from the 1850s onwards, has presented itself as mean and gritty: "If you make it here, you can make it anywhere" - - implying that if you fail in NY, then you're a hayseed loser who should have never left the vegetable patch.

Not to mention the typical Northeastern urban attitude: "If you don't like it, then go suck it (or "f* off", or "eat sh*", etc.)"

I can't think of a faster way for a politician to lose an election than to treat his electorate in the way a New Yorker (or Philadelphian, or Newark-ian) treats non-natives, and themselves.

[Storebought]

Not to mention the typical Northeastern urban attitude: "If you don't like it, then go suck it (or "f* off", or "eat sh*", etc.)"

I believe this is coming from someone who said he would never leave the country.

I wasn't aware I had to leave the country to visit New York.

Anyhow: The Populist movement of the 1880s, for ex., was based nearly entirely on the perception that New Yorkers and Bostonians were cold moneychanging elitists who took advantage of the sturdy Midwestern farmer.

And even then, those Populists merely rehashed a stereotype that Jackson used to huge effect when dismantling the second Bank of the US.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that dislike of the Northeast is nearly as old as the US is itself, the only respite coming during the 1940s through the 70s, when the South was the vilified alienated 'Other' of the US.