Re: Census Data Show America’s White Population Shrank for the First Time
Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:59 am
That's why I don't see the country splitting up state-by-state.
Here, I doubt that people from Bremerton, Bellevue, Bothell, or Bellingham will ever find agreement with people from Pasco, Prosser, Pe Ell, or Pomeroy.
The political divides are also economic and cultural divides. The cities are wealthier and more prosperous than the rural areas, and there is a net flow of tax dollars from urban areas to rural areas (and has been for the last half century). At some point people in the cities are going to stop feeling so generous to their rural brethren, and that is likely to happen much more quickly if people in rural areas openly resent or hate their benefactors.
Locally we have a similar dynamic going on. The economic and cultural story in the Methow Valley is substantially different from the rest of Okanogan County. The Methow is gerrymandered and voters here are effectively disenfranchised by the county government, yet at the same time most of the tax dollars flow from the Methow to the rest of the county. Issues important to this community are by and large ignored by the county, or are only given attention when they become emergencies.
Here, I doubt that people from Bremerton, Bellevue, Bothell, or Bellingham will ever find agreement with people from Pasco, Prosser, Pe Ell, or Pomeroy.
The political divides are also economic and cultural divides. The cities are wealthier and more prosperous than the rural areas, and there is a net flow of tax dollars from urban areas to rural areas (and has been for the last half century). At some point people in the cities are going to stop feeling so generous to their rural brethren, and that is likely to happen much more quickly if people in rural areas openly resent or hate their benefactors.
Locally we have a similar dynamic going on. The economic and cultural story in the Methow Valley is substantially different from the rest of Okanogan County. The Methow is gerrymandered and voters here are effectively disenfranchised by the county government, yet at the same time most of the tax dollars flow from the Methow to the rest of the county. Issues important to this community are by and large ignored by the county, or are only given attention when they become emergencies.