The primary feature of the US political system is an entrenched and horrific bias against urban areas and the people that live there. The primary beneficiary of this bias is now the heavily-subsidized exurbs, which are able to appeal to rural areas (which
used to be primary beneficiaries, but no longer, as they have less relative population and wealth) to maintain a systematic legislative majority (especially in state legislatures and the House) on grounds that are sometimes understandable but more often disingenuous and just as exploitative as the urban/rural dynamic is normally imagined to be. (Older, inner-suburban areas are in relative equilibrium here, and when they side with the cities there is some faint hope of balance.)
Most people will point to race, income, and religion as the important cleavages instead– and yes they are important, and complicate my ten-second analysis considerably– but dammit I have an ax to grind here, and I apparently feel like grinding it
super sharp right now.
