What about Missouri, Dems control St. Louis and Kansas City the rest is GOP country or is it much more complex?
It isn't very complex anymore.. it may have been at one time. St Louis City and Kansas City are very Democratic - about 75%. The inner suburbs - where there are some blacks and lots of affluent and well educated people, lean pretty strongly Democratic. The exurbs are of course majority GOP, and the rural areas are pure Religious Right - Jesus signs in the yard of almost every shack.
Missouri used to be about 50/50.. now I'd say it is 54/46 GOP, based mostly on 'cultural issues' like religion, and hatred of groups like blacks, gays, the non-religious or the well educated. I don't think economic issues play very big outside the cities, as the middle class disappeared a long time ago - I don't think most younger Missourians remember it.
There's a very strong paradigm of seeing everything as two classes - winner/loser, rich/flunkey, etc. This actually plays into voting GOP, because a lot of people see the GOP and the social darwinism philosophy it represents as the side a winner would choose. They see the Democrats as the losers, and a party for losers. It is very funny, but Missouri is a very typical state - an economic backwater in decline, most people becoming less well off - but they're too vain to admit it, so they vote for the 'winners' in order to pretend they're winners. Fascinating psychology..
