A great article from Seattle's
The Stranger. I'm excerpting here, but by all means go read the whole article.
For Democrats, it's the cities, stupid--not the rural areas, not the prickly, hateful "heartland," but the sane, sensible cities--including the cities trapped in the heartland. Pandering to rural voters is a waste of time. Again, look at the second map. Look at the urban blue spots in red states like Iowa, Colorado, and New Mexico--there's almost as much blue in those states as there is in Washington, Oregon, and California.
This is the way to go. We own the cities. It's time the Democrats began focusing on them.
John Kerry won every city with a population above 500,000. He took half the cities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000.
Here is where it begins. Red state, blue state be damned, cities are what made America great. Atlanta went for us, Austin went for us, Denver went for us. America without the cities has all the power of Liechtenstein.
This will mean some changes in our positions:
When it comes to the environment, our new policy is this: Let the heartland live with the consequences of handing the national government to the rape-and-pillage party . . . Liberals in big cities who have never seen the inside of a Wal-Mart spend a lot of time worrying about the impact Wal-Mart is having on the heartland. No more . . . In short, we're through with you people. We're going to demand that the Democrats focus on building their party in the cities while at the same time advancing a smart urban-growth agenda that builds the cities themselves.
It's time we started speaking to our constituency. Screw the family farms, there aren't many left anyway. City-states made Greece and Venice, they can re-make America.
You've made your choice, red America, and we urban Americans are going to make a different choice. We are going to make Seattle--and New York, Chicago, and the rest--a great place to live, a progressive place. Again, we'll quote Ronald Reagan: We will make each of our cities--each and every one--a shining city on a hill. You can have your sh*tholes.
Finally a comment about urban values. So mocked and derided. Overlooked in all the hoopla is that we have a diverse population in our cities. We have learned to get along with each other. We accept each other. Just moved here from the bankrupt family farm? We're here. We'll explain the buses and subways and those pesky one-way streets downtown.
A city belongs to everyone in it, and expands to contain whoever desires to join its ranks. People migrate to cities and open independent businesses or work at established ones. They import cultural influences, thus enriching the urban arts and nightlife, which in turn enrich everything. Most importantly, they bring the indisputable fact of their own bodies and minds.
Let them ban evolution in Topeka, let them worry about Wal-Mart killing mom and pops on "Main Street. Let them chop off mountain tops in West Virginia, We don't need them. Our kids will understand the scientific method. Wal-Mart never drove an Asian grocery store out of business. Our blue state lands will remain intact our state legislatures will see to that.
We'll island-hop from now on, thank you, spending our time and our money in blue cities. If an urbanite is dying to have a country experience, rural Vermont is lovely. Maple syrup, rolling hills, fly-fishing--everything you could want.
We will own our state governments:
Again, it is not the State of Washington that is blue, it is the concentrated population of Seattle that is deep blue; and because Seattle is so damn big it has the power to dictate the politics of its generally hostile state. . . According to the 2000 Census, 226 million people reside inside metropolitan areas--a number that positively dwarfs the 55 million people who live outside metro areas. The 85 million people who live in strictly defined central city limits also outnumber those rural relics.
Bush and the Republicans don't care about America's cities. They've made that abundantly clear. It's time we showed them the true power of our cities. And it is high time the Democrats focused that power.
The cities of America must lead the way. We must lead by example. We will have people clamoring to live on our cities. We have schools, culture, freedoms and opportunities rural America has never dreamed of. Unleash the cities and we will show America what this country is all about.