inignoct wrote:
] What are the visible traits a particular political party
] imprints on a county -- school arts funding levels, number of
] trees and parks, wealth, distance from nightlife?
] Fascinating.

I wrote this a few days ago:

Left/right politics in the United States seem to me to have a rather stark urban/rural split. This is fairly clear in the electoral results. (Dennis Miller once remarked that Democrats seem to be attracted to water, missing the obvious connection between big cities and old sea transportation routes.)

People in the city tend to be concerned with things like homelessness, poverty, etc because they are constantly confronted with it. They see guns as things that kill people. They are tolerant of diversity because they are surrounded by it. Furthermore, in general they are quite interdependent with others around them because of the way they live. Thus they tend, statistically, to support welfare, gun control, and the separation of church and state.

People in the country don’t really interact with homeless/poor on a daily basis, so they are less inclined to spent moned on social programs. They see guns as a hobby. They don’t see the problem with teaching their religious values in school because they don’t know anyone who doesn’t practice their religion. In general, people in the country tend to be more independent of others because of they way they live. Thus they tend, statistically, to support lower taxes, oppose gun control, and oppose the separation of church and state.

RE: Mister Landslide's Neighborhood - Red versus blue states isn't the half of it. By Timothy Noah