America’s partisan divide comes down to city v. country
Cracked can usually be counted on for liberal viewpoints and hearty laughs, but their executive editor soberly recasts America’s partisan divide as one between the city and the country. “The cities are less than 4 percent of the land mass, but 62 percent of the population and easily 99 percent of the popular culture. Our movies, shows, songs, and news all radiate out from those blue islands. And if you live in the red, that fucking sucks.”
A central part of his argument is that the media have failed, and not just in their characterization of Trump supporters. There’s a fundamental mismatch between the lifestyles depicted onscreen and what is possible for many Americans, a disjuncture that has borne heavily on rural minds while city folk have gone blithely on. That vacuum was, inevitably, filled.