As the media continues to digest and distort the election outcome, Princeton professor Sean Wilentz points out that the real cultural divide is between the city and rural regions of America, not the coasts and heartland. 

“The real electoral division isn’t between the coasts and the heartland. It’s between cities all over the United States and the rest of the country.”

“By perpetuating the easy impression of a nation divided into coastal liberals and heartland conservatives, reporters and commentators are misleading themselves and their audiences about the actual political state of the Union. Without realizing it, they are also advancing the picture of the nation advanced by the GOP culture warriors, feeding the despair and paranoia of coastal liberals and writing off millions of Americans in every part of the country.” Hicks Nixed Slick’s Pick.

Additionally, I would like to point out that neither candidate truly addressed the urban agenda in their campaign for office (yet cities and metropolitan regions are the most populated areas of our nation).  Moreover, there was a complete lack of discourse on water rights, the environment, rampant population growth, and land use/development issues.  As most urban and regional planners know, these issues will have a profound impact on our country within the very near future and should take precedent over any discussion on “moral values.” Our country is not prepared for the projecteded population growth of 140 million people by 2050.  Furthermore, as the sunbelt migration continues, the need for fresh water in desert regions becomes a hotly contested debate.  I won’t even discuss transportation and infrastructural needs.  Why are our politicians and mainstream media turning their back on such important issues?

—–