The Rural Juror

Swamp cyber-neighbor Justin Fox looks at rural America wonders who, exactly, is there left to "liaise" to?

I could only find four states where rural residents are in the majority: Vermont, Maine, West Virginia and Mississippi. The latter two look to be on the verge of flipping to majority urban, which would leave a couple of New England states where I don't think Mudcat gets a whole lotta work as the last great bulwarks of rural America. The world as a whole, by the way, just flipped from majority rural to majority urban on May 23.

None of this means that rural Americans are lesser beings who deserve to be ignored by Democrats or Republicans or even business/economics bloggers. But their relative importance, both economically and politically, is shrinking every year. (The decline was actually almost halted for a while in the 1970s and 1980s, but appears to have gotten back on track since.) The whole bass-fishing-and-pickup-trucks political ethos may survive for decades or even centuries more on pure nostalgic affectation. But the United States is now a decidedly urban (well, really it's suburban) nation.

You forgot NASCAR!