Geographic political divide

[SingingAnalyst]

What is your favorite geographical political divide?

Being from metro Detroit, one might suspect I would pick Eight Mile Rd., but I am not. (Several suburbs north of 8 Mile are indistinguishable demographically or politically from Detroit; and the wealthy, white Grosse Pointes , as well as predominantly white Livonia and Plymouth, are located south of 8 Mile.)

Instead, I will select Dequindre Road, north of 8 Mile Rd., which is the dividing line between Oakland and Macomb Counties (MI).

From 1928 through 1968, through an era of enormous growth in both counties (and until 1950, in Detroit itself) Macomb was reliably Democratic and Oakland reliably Republican, both at the national and local level. (The Macomb County Board of Commissioners had 24 Dems and 1 Republican when it was created in 1969).

Then something happened: urban riots, massive white flight, controversy over cross-district school busing. From 1972 to 2012, Macomb and Oakland voted within a few percentage points of each other (Macomb was slightly more Dem through 2000, except in 1992 when they were virtually tied; Oakland emerged as slightly more Dem in 2004, 2008, and 2012).

Then in 2016 something else happened. Images of protestors blocking traffic appeared on TV, and the GOP nominated Trump. In 2016, Macomb and Oakland voted 19.6 points apart (Oakland 51.7-43.6 Clinton; Macomb 42.1-53.6 Trump).

The similarily between these two counties at the Presidential level masked deep differences between white-collar, well-educated Oakland and blue-collar, mostly Catholic Macomb. In 1972, only 36% of Macomb, but 51.3% of Oakland, voted to legalize abortion through 20 weeks. In 1988, only 36% of Macomb, but 49% of Oakland, voted No on a successful referendum on a law to ban state funding of most abortions. In 2004, only 39.4% of Macomb, but 48% of Oakland, voted No on a successful change to MI's Constitution to define marriage as one man and one woman.

Well... I'm a local boy. What other political geographic divisions are out there? Go.

[PragmaticPopulist]

One of the biggest divides I see is with Montgomery County, Virginia, home of Blacksburg. It sits in southwest VA, which has grown increasingly Republican in recent years. Montgomery County is a swing county though, voting for Obama in 2008, Romney in 2012, and Clinton in 2016.