Issue 228 Why cities are liberal December 16, 2013

So, why are cities left leaning in the first place? Well, thanks to a Rabbi (who works for the Blaze network), we may just have that answer. Let's get started.

Cities: A city itself is necessary for a healthy economy. It is a place that people go to buy and sell goods. Without one, countries can descend into poverty like Somalia. Basically, cities do not need the countryside or factories, but they need the cities as a place for commerce to occur. As such a great number of people gather in cities and share ideas. In order to accommodate those people, the cities governing body maintains the roads, provides water and even electricity. All that is necessary to life in this modern era is taken care of in a city by its government. Now this creates the mindset that makes people in cities lean left.

The mindset: With most of the basic needs being taken care of by a government in cities, people look upon this as an example of how government can take care of everything. In essence, the people see this and that being taken care of by government and thus when a problem arises, an issue needs to be solved or a new service is to begin, people look to the cities government. This mentality is then scaled up to the national level as when the people in cities see how there government takes care of things, they immediately think that the national government can just as easily solve the problem. These notions are completely different to the self reliance model of the people outside of cities as they have no government to rely on. People outside of these cities have no choice to take life as it comes and solve it all themselves. As such, the mindset of dependence upon government evolves based upon where you live.

Conclusion: It is not the cities fault that people become liberal. It is the mentality people get by living in one. Is it bad to be liberal minded, no, but it is bad to become solely reliant on a government especially if they are going to simply compound the problem. Cities unfortunately dominate any election on the national scale due to the sheer number of people who live there. As such, there is not counterbalance to their people’s ideology. Thus, ideas of self reliance are shut out, the same ideas that allow people to become independent. What can we do about this is a question I have yet to find an answer for.