‘I’m Still Paying Attention to the Election’
9th November 2010
I’m well aware that both parties do gerrymandering, though the Democrats have been “compelled” to do it by their evident need to keep urban areas together, where their majorities are reliable. That too bears some consideration. Why should there be so severe a divide in our country between rural and urban areas? It would be interesting to find out how many districts with a city of more than 250,000 are “red,” and, conversely, how many districts without a city of more than 50,000 are “blue.” I’ll have to ferret out the information. Off the top of my head, I can say that Cincinnati, Columbus, Omaha, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Fort Worth are “red” cities. I’m not sure if there are any others. If you look at the national map colored for Democrat and Republican districts, you see a lot of little points of blue in lakes of red, and immediately you can tell, there’s El Paso, Minneapolis, Dallas, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Louisville, New Orleans, Sacramento, and so forth.
The centralization of government is a boon to the centralization of business and the centralization of agriculture. So, over time, the towns produced fewer and fewer of their own goods, and the people living in cities were farther and farther removed from the food they consumed and the natural resources they used. The intimate connection between the city and its neighboring countryside was attenuated.
Think of the doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, realtors, and technocrats whose livelihoods in one way or another are based upon the family breakdown that characterizes our cities. Or perform the thought experiment in reverse. Ask, “What would happen if people in our cities married before they had children, stayed married, attended church, raised responsible and noble children, provided for all of their most basic needs and for most of those, like celebrations, that really sweeten human life? Who would be out of work?”