One thing I see from my conservative friends on a regular basis is a map of America's presidential vote. The point they want us all to see is "Hey, this is really a conservative country with just a few outliers of crazy liberals out there!" The actual electoral and popular count drives them crazy..."How do we lose? The system must be rigged!"
Yet looking at a map like this I've always seen it a bit differently. Yes, in most wide-open spaces, people tend to vote more conservative, more 'Republican'. But in places where lots of people live, they tend to vote more liberal, more 'Democrat'. Why is this?
So we just got home from a family vacation to Chicago, a far different place than my small town in Kansas. I really enjoyed it, as it was such a very different place, even if I personally would not want to live there. Small town living is probably more my speed. Others decide differently, though, and that's OK...and in living in a large city, people tend to vote differently and see the world differently. And usually they vote more blue, more democrat.
Two things really stuck out to me while I was there that are illustrative of why one would vote in a more 'liberal' (i.e., more state control) fashion, making the facts plain that if you are on top of people all the time in large numbers, then you probably want a lot more control. First, when it comes to travel infrastructure, you need much more central control. We drove a little bit in Chicago...bad idea. It's not that the roads are terrible in Chicago, it's just that there are far too many cars. One time we drove late at night after a game and the roads were fine, but during the day when people travel, there are too many people trying to claim far too spots. Thus, there is a greater need for more centralized, government-led initiatives like subways and buses. While the wealthiest may be able to drive downtown and pay $35 a day for parking (as the free market allows), most people cannot afford to do that. They need to take public transport to get to work. While government trains and buses may not always be the most efficient means of getting this done, they generally work well when they are funded and run in appropriate ways. Those who live in large cities can see this, while those of us in small towns (where driving is much easier) have a lot harder time understanding why there is such a need. Just go to a large city, though, and one sees its need.
A second way to see this difference is in how we view guns. Most of my family and friends in small towns see guns not as only a right, but perhaps as necessary. Live in the country and you need them to shoot at wild animals, and one might need them for self-defense as law enforcement may be quite a ways away. But live in a city, in which there thousands or even tens of thousands all concentrated in a tiny area, and loose gun laws simply don't work. Actually, let me put it differently...lots of guns in a small region with lots of people do not work, just like having too many cars on too few roads. Gun laws have tried eliminating guns, to little effect, and this is why there are still so many shootings in large cities even though there are laws. Even against the law, guns still infiltrate these communities, lead to shootings, and make it seem like cities are dangerous places. Removing all guns still will not eliminate murders...Cain killed Abel with a rock, after all. But removing the worst of them, or at least making sure they are locked away or giving strong penalties or insurance rates to those who hold onto them will eliminate some, if not many of the problems that are associated with mass proliferation of weaponry.
Maybe the differences in our country is a reason why limited federal control is actually a good thing...having a 'one size fits all' policy on guns or infrastructure or many other elements may not be helpful. Let states and counties decide what fits best for their place. This is not absolute, of course...some of the worst excesses of both sides (institutional racism on the right, extra tight economic or social controls on the left) cannot be allowed to stand. But in a nation of 300 million people, it's hard to figure out the right balance of these things unless you are on the ground and experiencing them for yourself.
