Post-industrial "rust belt" towns actually went for Clinton, not Trump

Further, more granular analysis of the election results have revealed that even small towns in states like PA went for Clinton last November. Trump's victory was almost entirely due to rural voters, not post-industrial town voters. I've been pointing out for months that population density and race were more correlated with voting than economic factors. This seems to bear that out. How do Democrats appeal to these rural voters? Probably they can't and never will. Democratic chances in future elections are going to be about turning out the non-voters or the infrequent voters, not flipping the rural voters. Partially because there probably isn't a factual argument that would persuade these voters. The big issues that Trump ran on -- depicting the nation as a violence-ridden hell hole overrun by criminal immigrants and terrorists are actually a fiction bought into by people living in his rural strongholds. The people who actually do experience crime, and potential terrorism, and encounter immigrants (legal and undocumented) voted overwhelmingly for Clinton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/14/red-america-is-an-illusion-postindustrial-towns-go-for-democrats-heres-the-data/?utm_term=.0d0d6b2d3046

Nothing new, apparently.

"Hicks and Slicks: The Urban-Rural Confrontation of the Twenties"

http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his1302/hicks.html

ml1 said:

Further, more granular analysis of the election results have revealed that even small towns in states like PA went for Clinton last November. Trump's victory was almost entirely due to rural voters, not post-industrial town voters. I've been pointing out for months that population density and race were more correlated with voting than economic factors. This seems to bear that out. How do Democrats appeal to these rural voters? Probably they can't and never will. Democratic chances in future elections are going to be about turning out the non-voters or the infrequent voters, not flipping the rural voters. Partially because there probably isn't a factual argument that would persuade these voters. The big issues that Trump ran on -- depicting the nation as a violence-ridden hell hole overrun by criminal immigrants and terrorists are actually a fiction bought into by people living in his rural strongholds. The people who actually do experience crime, and potential terrorism, and encounter immigrants (legal and undocumented) voted overwhelmingly for Clinton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/14/red-america-is-an-illusion-postindustrial-towns-go-for-democrats-heres-the-data/?utm_term=.0d0d6b2d3046