July 31, 2008
URBAN AMERICA: A political monoculture:
Today, Americaâ€™s urban areas have evolved into a political monoculture that increasingly resembles the â€œsolid Southâ€ that provided a base for Democrats from the late 19th century to the 1960s. Since 1972, the year of the Nixon landslide, the Democratic share has grown 20 percent or more in most of the largest urban counties. . . .
Race and income levels do not explain the emerging urban monoÂculture, because the cause lies elsewhere: in the evolution of cities over the past four decades. The shift began in the late 1960s, when urban regions, from financial centers such as New York and Chicago to old industrial cities such as Detroit and Cleveland, began to suffer a massive exodus of predominantly white, middle-class residents.
Read the whole thing. (Via Newsalert).