“Irrelevant” may be too strong a word. But the demographic trends certainly indicate that an ever-shrinking proportion of the population will be rural.
@Basement_Gainz…thanks for the question…and thanks for always being willing to hold your ground and answer questions honestly.
First; it may “appear” that I follow “Left” Politics because I have a personal and historical “weak spot” for President Obama. This has been accentuated since the inauguration of Trump because of the sheer, flat-out hypocrisy I see from the Right, in the way they judged and ridiculed President Obama and the way Trump gets a pass. I guess I should expect it. Trump himself said he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and his base wouldn’t blink an eye…and they haven’t.
“Left” Politics…“Progressives”…“Democratic Socialist”…PC and IP…compassion and “free-speech” that only applies to certain groups…lack of understanding of our Constitution…all of these are as far-away from my belief structure as Trump is…
To your question:
I think that the direction the Country goes really depends on the Political direction of the next 2-3 generations of young people…and right now, it’s not clear. You may “think” that Millennials and the “iGens” behind them lean “left”…but the reality is they are now almost “Political Eunuchs” with Political Understanding that extends no further than the blips of biased news they may glance over between sessions of their favorite Smartphone Game.
“The Heartland”? They will be with us for a while…but I sure hope that it is not a trend that they follow the Siren Call of Demagogues and Con-Artist…
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What an adorable view of my generation 
Rest of you keep thinking it as well. We’ll just be over here with workforce efficiency numbers that make you guys look like senior citizens 
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They don’t have to be. We’ve made policy choices that have pushed us in that direction.
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What policy choices could possibly push the flow the other direction?
LOL!
There was a little “hyperbole” there, @pfury…but the direction the next 2-3 Generations take the Country is somewhat unclear. (IMO).
I’m FAR from being a social scientist.
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Agreed. But I think the push towards cities is already a lock. My generation has already spoken about wanting things to do, wanting the ability to get a good paying job to afford said things to do, etcetc.
My generation and the following ones are already out consuming prior ones. You don’t do that without the big city. My grandma can’t even get high speed internet without spending 200 bucks a month.
Because that’s what Marxists do, isn’t it? And that is what is funny; the people who are supposed to be socialists are voting Republican which means the danger for the GOP is that it ends up becoming a socialist party. This is the reason why, for all of its lip service to smaller government and anti-commie talk, it will never get rid of welfare or cut spending. Get rid of welfare, planned parenthood, foodstamps, farm subsidies, cut military spending, etc., and see how all those people start voting. Once they don’t have the luxury of being mad at transsexuals, feminists, and immigrants, they will start to actually think about themselves.
Antitrust, for one. Consolidation in cities is in part a function a consolidation of industries. As for the truly rural areas, family farms are becoming a thing of the past as agriculture consolidates as well.
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When Obama said that Trayvon could have been his son, he was vilified by the Right. Yes, in hindsight maybe he shouldn’t have said it or worded it differently, especially since all of the facts were not known. But, at least that comment came from a place of compassion and was a remark against violence. Trump’s comments are typically hateful and often directed at an individual to belittle him. They come from either a dark place or a very immature place.
Being good worker bees is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to leading the country. German general Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord said that those who were clever and lazy made the best leaders.
And that is a sad thing for the future. We’ve created better consumers instead of better citizens.
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I’ve heard that the move away from family farms wasn’t purely driven by market forces but was a deliberate push by the department of agriculture starting around 50 years ago.
From an environmental point of view that’s a damned shame because the environmental impact of small farms is miniscule, at least, judging from the perspective of a guy who lives in a region that is still peppered with small family farms.
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When voting we are either voting for policies, or policy-makers. Did Trump voters vote for him for specific policies (the Wall, Muslim ban, free healthcare that would be cheaper and better than Obamacare) or did they vote for Trump the man, who they believed possessed the qualities we could trust would guide him to making the best decisions? I tend to think specific policies played a major part for many. I think those who are bright enough to think in terms of policy-makers and wouldn’t be swayed by demagoguery wouldn’t have found anything in Trump that said he had a clue about anything.
I know that there is a tendency from the left to compare Hitler and Trump as evil actors but the biggest thing they have in common is that they really didn’t have any specific ideas on how to run a country. It was all vague ideological rhetoric. Hitler was known to delegate and sleep a lot. We think of the Nazi regime as some well-oiled machine that excelled at efficiency (they were German after all) but that wasn’t the case. Many decisions were based on what people thought Hitler wanted, not on what he explicitly stated he wanted.
I think the establishment or conservative Republicans can just chant “tax cuts and SCOTUS appointees” from now till when Trump is gone. He might do a couple other decent things. But I’m not counting on it.
The people I know who voted for Trump were really just voting against Hillary. Not for anything, just a vague “Anti”: anti-establishment, anti-mainstream media, anti-big government. Their continued “support” for Trump has very little to do with Trump. Those attacking Trump are their enemies, and were their enemies before Trump was even in the picture.
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They didn’t know they had a couple of other choices?
Late to the recent developments, but I agree with this 100%. You’re always going to have the pockets of alt-“anything else” reactionaries (you just have different identities in the coast city vs the flyover) but a lot of the swaths of heartland that I’ve experienced are exactly this way.
Nothing turns me off more than identity politics and political correctness, and most of the people I have met in the Midwest seem to be the same.
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I voted for Gary Johnson. I don’t think he was a great candidate, but at least he is a decent human being.
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