When I returned from a road trip last June, I was struck by the differences between housing in a metro area like Seattle and the smaller, often poorer homes in small towns and rural America. What I saw was a striking contrast that stood as a visual statement of the divide between the red and blue parts of the county. Following last Tuesday’s vote, I think it’s worth another look as one of the factors (there are many) telling the story of the presidential election.
Here’s what I wrote about the other America, the poorer, smaller America:
You’ll drive into rural and small-town America and find that today it’s in many ways not much different from that America of more than 30 years ago. What’s different now is where you’re from.
In rural and small-town America the houses are mostly still the same size and they cost less. That helps because incomes there are generally lower than in the city you set out from. Rural America is a long way from Silicon Valley – or any major metro. The employment offered in those areas is pretty much non-existent in rural communities. So, too, the large employment and pay of government centers.
