Divided: Rural Vs. Urban (With Suburbs As A Wild Card)

 The election last Tuesday made something very clear -- this country is very divided. It is divided between a Democratic electorate in urban areas and a Republican electorate in rural areas -- with the suburbs being the wild card that could now go either way. On election day, those suburbs went mainly for Democrats, and that is why they now will have control over the House of Representatives.

Here is how Frank Bruni describes this division in The New York Times:

Perhaps the main takeaway from Tuesday’s results is just how big a split exists between the more and less densely populated areas of the country. That’s much of the explanation for the Democratic Party’s gains in the House versus the Republican Party’s success in the Senate, which was owed to largely rural states. Democrats continue to own cities, and the midterms show that they are exerting more and more dominance over suburbs and over the college-educated Americans, especially women, there.

But what a mess this could make on Capitol Hill, which is plenty messy already. The looming disarray was especially well captured in Mike Allen’s Axios AM newsletter this morning, the lead item of which was titled, “Two Americas: amplified, tearing apart.”

Allen noted that the “Democratic strategy of targeting women, minorities and the young was vindicated with the new House majority. We saw record liberal turnout in many suburbs.” Meanwhile, he added, “The Republican strategy of targeting men, whites and rural voters was vindicated with the larger Senate majority. We saw record conservative turnout in Trump country. The net result: Two parties with two wildly different bases and philosophies are pulling farther and farther apart — and are certain to double down on divisiveness heading into 2020.”