The huge difference in the way urbanites and rural residents view government and society is the “San Andreas fault” of American politics, says the Daily Yonder in summarizing a study by two University of Virginia researchers. Rural Americans are twice as likely to feel left behind as urban residents, with the highest levels of disaffection found among males, Baby Boomers and those in the least populated parts of the country.
“Alienation rates are twice as likely to be very high in rural areas as in the denser cities; three-and-a-half times more likely if you have only a high school diploma than a graduate degree; and four times more likely if you are in the lowest income bracket than in the highest income bracket,” say the researchers, James Hunger and Carl Bowman.
The study says half of all people with very high disaffection live in the lowest two levels of population density. “If you live in the least populated rural areas, you are twice as likely to be in the highest category of disaffection,” it says. Some 43 percent of whites reported they were worse off, double the rate of blacks and Hispanics, said the Yonder.
A large majority of people who were poorer, less urban and less educated were far more likely to say “government is doing too many things better left to business, civic groups and individuals” while a similarly large bloc of city dwellers with higher incomes and more years in school identify with the statement “government should do more to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.”