The Rural-Urban Divide

The Rural-Urban Divide
By Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
9/6/2023

This article was written in response to a left-leaning blog post by Brian Almon, justifying the improbable and contested 2020 presidential election results. Brian’s premise was that the blue urban voters have different needs than the red rural voters; the cities are surprisingly and incomprehensibly big and have so many voters that the urban vote carried the election. My friend John then commented on Brian’s article, which he forwarded. The following summarizes their comments and my reaction to this exchange.

John emphasized the need for election integrity and electing non-RINO candidates in the rural areas. He then argued for the libertarian argument that freedom requires the option to leave/escape from the tyranny of an oppressive government. He believes mankind is now in a precarious state since the world could soon and plausibly be under a one-world/planetary/global government. In the past, people could go west and escape a tyrannical government, but today, there is no frontier into which we could go to escape global tyranny. He hopes that Elon Musk will soon open the possibility of colonization outside of Earth and reopen the possibility of escaping an oppressive government. He realizes that the possibility of moving to an extraterrestrial colony to escape the tyranny of oppressive government is probably centuries away.

Brian’s article illuminated the different needs of the rural and urban populations. The two groups’ inherent structural/constituent difference is that the urban population is minimally connected with nature to survive. The high concentration of people in a small urban area allows for forming coalitions/support and advocacy groups to support the acceptance of sexual deviance and identity grievances. Begging and homelessness are survivable lifestyles in urban areas because government and non-government charities are available.

My assessment: This dialogue raises the question for me, “What is the solution to the problem of the contradictory needs and values of the cities and the rural dwellers?” As a foundation, I take the following positions:
1) Racial/identity victimhood is a cultural/psychological error. There should be no moral-behavioral distinction between ethnic groups, only the superficial distinctions of skin/hair/features, cultural symbols, culinary, grooming, sartorial, architectural, and worship preferences.
2) There should be no acceptance or celebration other than love/care, counsel, and support in Godliness for those drawn toward or express themselves outside the Biblical boundaries of sexuality. Note: Sexuality is the dividing issue between libertarianism/liberalism and Biblical Conservatism. Live and let live is not a Biblical principle. There is a dividing line between the absolute standards of Godliness and the human preferences of man. What appears to be private behavior has public consequences on a long-term spiritual and physical level. God desires reproduction, stewardship of the earth and animals, and willing choice of conduct reflecting His nature.
3) The community should support widows and orphans, but the able-bodied who do not work should not eat.
4) The policies/legislation governing cities and rural areas (not contradicting the Constitution and Bill of Rights) should be the purview/jurisdiction of the states, not federal law. The states are laboratories of democracy. The states have jurisdiction over choosing which Biblical principles should be legislated and enforced.
5) The foundation of the solution to society’s problems must be based on a moral-spiritual bias of accepting, living, and legislating according to Biblical principles. However, belief/personal worship alone will not improve society’s peace, prosperity, health, or joy. We must act to affect the cultural-economic-moral experience of living in society. The abstract and general principles of Biblical metaphor must be translated into legislation, enforcement, and societal action in the realms of culture, commerce, and government.
6) The challenge is enrolling those alienated and opposing the Gospel of salvation, Godly morality, and the existence of a God who loves willing compliance and punishes disobedience to His will and way. The government, society, and individuals cannot compromise with rebels against God’s way. If God exists and He is just, the cost of compromising with evil to accommodate or “get along” is too high for the fate of the individual soul and society. If He has a standard that pleases Him, if He rewards compliance with peace, prosperity, and health, and if He punishes disobedience (eventually), there is no payoff for compromise other than a temporary but false sense of peace. As children of God, as followers of the Way, we must stand for righteousness by living righteous lives, legislating according to His standards for public and private behavior, and enforcing those standards. We must speak the truth, consistently connect the bad consequences of unGodly decisions, and enroll others in living, legislating, and enrolling others. Living, speaking, and legislating the Truth shall free us and make us healthy, prosperous, and happy.

Summary of Article by Brian Almon on Substack:

– Rural areas tend to be Conservative/Red, and the urban areas tend to be Liberal/Blue. Conservatives view cities as liberal strongholds that foster dependence, crime, and corruption.
– Many conservatives do not believe Biden won and suspect massive voter fraud. This may be true, but they may have misjudged the urban population’s size and voting power.
– Cities are becoming increasingly important politically as the percentage of the population living in urban centers increases. Major cities like Chicago, New York, and LA contain millions of residents; roughly 10% of the national population is concentrated in these small areas.
– Illinois became reliably Democrat because Chicago, with over 3 million people, dominates state politics as Democrats have long controlled the city.
– The urban population has different needs than the rural population. Keeping huge cities running requires significant government services around infrastructure, transit, utilities, sanitation, security, etc. Thus, urban residents are drawn to support a bigger government because they depend on it for survival.
– As cities in traditionally red states like Idaho grow, they could flip states blue. Is this because conservatives have failed to consider and address urban interests adequately?
– Boise is experiencing a choice between moderate and socialist mayoral candidates, suggesting a possible leftward shift. Growth in other Treasure Valley cities raises similar concerns.
– Urban growth requires rural and urban populations to consider their divergent needs and values. What is the appropriate government role in serving both population demographics?

John’s comments on Brian’s article:

That was a very insightful article about the impact of cities on our elections.  I was ready to read more.  As a conservative activist in North Idaho, I tend to write off the entire south of the state and all the big cities.  We have strategies up here with which we hope to win our entire state and perhaps even win a conservative nation in our lifetime.  While we have our struggles, I tend to hold a very positive long-term vision.

Historically, a frontier territory has always represented the ultimate escape from the abuse of political power.  Throughout human history, up until only about 150 years ago, the most daring and freedom-loving people could trade the comforts and mandates of their large societies for the challenge of survival and the risks of piracy in frontier territory.  And someday in the future, after Elon Musk gets his way and humanity becomes an interplanetary species, particularly after the unimaginable wealth that could result from robotic labor and AI, many families may once again (and from then on, forever!) have the option to escape abusive governments by relocating to frontier territory on other planets or in distant orbits.

We should realize that we live today in a very anomalous landlocked period in all of human history!  We survive today in a “small room” with all the crazies and authoritarians of the earth.  We face threats of greater monopoly power in our lifetime, particularly if a single planetary government ever takes hold.  But we must keep our dreams alive for our posterity who will live in a day when the frontier reopens forever.

My Response:

Regarding extraterrestrial colonies, humanity will have crossed an important threshold when it is possible for freedom-loving pioneers to escape from planetary/global oppression. John hopes that this possibility will be a reality someday. When mankind has this possibility available, at least a remnant of humanity could escape the most repressive tyranny and live to spread the seeds of freedom available in Christ throughout the galaxy. But, in my estimation, extraterrestrial colonization is probably a century or two away, and global governance is possible within a few decades. Thus, future generations of colonists may have to break away from a very strong global government. The details of breaking away from the tyranny of an interplanetary government are difficult to predict.

Brian’s article noted that the liberal urban centers vote for their self-interest and dominate the government due to their large numbers. But John believes that the rural population could effectively oppose subjection to urban values in the state legislature, except for the dominance of the coalition voting bloc of the urban Democrat and rural RINO representatives.

The migration of the population into the urban/suburban centers has concentrated influence of the cities, which has overwhelmed the voice of the rural population. This effect is magnified by the fact that many conservative candidates are RINOs/GOP imposters/men pretending to be conservatives to get elected in rural/conservative areas but whose allegiance is to left-leaning political positions.

The Democrats/urban voters reliably choose liberal candidates, with the rare DINO exception. The voting bloc of the RINO imposters and the Democrats/liberals have given the Democrats the advantage at the federal and state level governments.

John works with the KCRCC (Kootenai County Republican Central Committee), which challenges candidates to demonstrate their conservative bona fides and endorses primary candidates who pass their scrutiny. This has been an effective tactic in realizing the goal of electing conservative representatives to the Idaho State government. Vetting Candidates by local organizations like KCRCC as true/real/non-RINO conservatives in the primaries gives Conservative voters a reliable source of information for rural Idaho voters to elect conservatives. This model of vetting candidates could be implemented nationally, thereby countering the infiltration of the RINOs and thereby allowing the conservative movement the voting representation its population desires and deserves.

On the federal level, there is a bias toward passing laws that impose corrupt policies on the States due to the 17th Amendment. In the original/unamended Constitution, the Senators were elected by a vote of the state legislators. This provision was originally included in the Constitution to seat a body of legislators who would have allegiance toward representing the interests of each state, as opposed to popular/society-level interests.

The 17th Amendment changed the election of the Senators from State Representatives to an election by popular vote. This change causes the Senatorial candidates to be subject to the corrupting influence required by massive fund-raising efforts and the subsequent obligation to donors.  Thus, the 17th Amendment subjected Senators directly to the corrupting influence of donors.

Campaign finance reform has attempted to prevent the excessive influence of donors on elected representatives, but the laws are weak and, to date, ineffective.  There are many perks to holding government office, and an entire suite of regulations (watchdog-monitoring mechanisms, transparency and accountability laws, and their associated enforcement mechanisms) are needed to apply consequences for trading influence for personal benefit.

Urbanization of the red/conservative states is moving the political bias toward domination of the once-rural states. State and Federal laws have become biased toward left-leaning policies, and the values and expenditures increasingly reflect the will and spirit of the urban centers.

Two other important considerations are 1) The willingness/eagerness of  Congress, Justice, and Executive branches to bend the 10th Amendment and the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to give federal authority over almost every state and corporate activity, and 2) The appropriation of Federal Funds contingent upon the States complying with Federal standards has become a standard method of sidestepping/end-running/avoiding the 10th Amendment restrictions on federal law dictating State law.

My Points:

• Many states’ large urban population centers overwhelm the popular vote and favor Democrat policies and values. In a winner-take-all system of wealth redistribution, the population in the majority wins at the expense of the minority.
• The Democrat/liberal/progressive/blue values include race/identity-based/DEI quotas, abortion, rebellion against Biblical sexual standards, and anti-Biblical morality enacted as public policy.
• The rural/less densely populated regions tend to live and vote according to traditional family/Christian/Biblical values. The rural lifestyle requires hard work, self-reliance, and practical skills in the physical world to cope with threats from the forces of nature.
• Urban culture tends to present challenges associated with overcoming people threats, such as 1) (un)employment/low wages, 2) gangs/crime, 3) law enforcement, and 4) activist groups.  Urban dwellers want an ally-parent-government to protect themselves against abusive employers, gangs, criminals, and social forces/ideas.
• The urban setting must solve the infrastructure problems, including traffic, zoning, supply, utilities, and homelessness/welfare.
• The urbanization/concentration of population centers allows the formation of a critical mass of vocal activist micro-minorities with anti-Biblical agendas. These groups then harass city, state, and federal governments to support/mandate their agendas.
• The disturbance made by these vocal minorities bullies government policymakers into concessions, which biases local governments toward liberal policies.
• Given the infiltration of RINOs into the local, state, and federal legislatures, the Democrat and RINO voting bloc can overwhelm the voice of the GOP/Conservative rural population. The bias of the Democrat/Liberal political philosophy is socialist/redistributionist, egalitarian, anti-Biblical, and authoritarian, and thus, the laws of Democrat-dominated cities, states, and nations tend toward these principles/standards.

A moral/character/spiritual solution to the problem of government excess, abuse, criminality, and addiction:

• Every government is composed of people, and its function depends upon its constituents’ drive. Government, as an institution is based upon exercising societally authorized power. As such, it can be subverted/hijacked/misdirected to allow the men operating the levers of government to satisfy their animal hunger for power, wealth, and pleasure.
• To counter the abuse of the function of government, the internal structures of government must include power-based machinery to enforce the non-abuse of its power for personal benefit. Such tools must include audits, surveillance, penalties, recording, and publishing all government employee/officials/contractors’ negotiations not affecting national security.
• However, structural/procedural/legal provisions to stop corruption will be insufficient. All laws are mechanical/mindless and limited and have loopholes that the crafty/committed soul can exploit. There must be legal consequences for violating the letter of the law, but to eliminate government abuse and elevate government to the role of servant of goodness, the individuals conducting government business must be committed to a higher morality and authority than man’s laws.
• The abuse of government will only be reversed by a society-wide culture of Godliness. The masses (most of humanity) must embrace Godliness to provide a societal reservoir of candidates committed to resisting the temptations of trading influence for sex, wealth, and power. Government servants must be devoted to serving their fellow man and God in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth.
• The deep solution is spreading the Gospel, transforming hearts, and people living and legislating according to the principles of Godliness.
• People have free will, and they can choose to live according to the flesh, or they can choose to live according to Godly principles. The structural and procedural resistance to the animal nature of man will be overwhelmed until humanity commits to creating a self-reinforcing/self-perpetuating culture of Godliness and rules itself according to those principles. Until that transformation, most of the population of mankind will be subject to the unrighteous rule of the few who control the levers of governmental power.

Brian brought up an important consideration: the needs of the liberal urban centers compared to the rural communities. The issues are 1) the transfer of wealth from rural areas to support the urban welfare/homeless population and 2) the urban/Godless values being imposed upon the rural/Godly population. Both of these issues point toward a solution of separate governance.

The needs of the cities are real, and some are unique to or more pronounced in the urban centers. The redistribution of wealth from one population to another is an ethical consideration. Without agreement and conscious assent, such wealth transfers are a type of state-forced theft. Funding bills should overtly attribute expenditures to urban and rural constituents so that both approve the wealth transfer.

The solution to the problems of funding homelessness and welfare should, at a minimum, include the conscious choice/agreement to transfer wealth. Choosing to give to the poor makes it charity. If all such transfers are open/fully disclosed, then the principles of accountability and transparency can be used to make decisions. But I believe the rural population, those who are connected with working the earth, will object to supporting those who do not work, citing the invocation of 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

The rural population tends to be conservative because of their self-reliant lifestyle and connection with nature and nature’s God. The ultimate and necessary defense against corruption and the pressures to legislate to tolerate and celebrate sexual sin is the conscious decision/commitment to reject sin on a private/personal and public/group level. A societal acknowledgment of the standards of God, in particular, the Biblical standards, is necessary to compare and vet every proposed and passed law. Jury nullification is the final bulwark against enforcing unjust/unrighteous law.

Sin, in all its forms, attracts the human heart. Sins against property and persons (theft and battery) are sufficiently egregious/painful that governments almost universally legislate and enforce their prohibition. But sexual sins appear harmless when consensual and should be outside of the realm of government purview for legislation. The urbanization of society has allowed a concentration of activists who loudly lobby for the normalization and honoring of sexual sin. Many large urban centers have capitulated to the pressure of these noisy groups. Supporters of sinful sexuality have won entrance into the state, local, and federal legislatures and legalized and enforced tolerance and celebration of sexual perversion.

The rejection of Godliness in one area of life (the realm of Godly sexuality) has moved the battle line farther into the realm of daily/interpersonal/commercial/social life experience. Thus, by increments, we see the tolerance of riots by groups of racial minorities, thefts by the poor/homeless, and defunding the police who protect against such violations. The greed/lust for/covetousness of the wealth of the rich has conspired to allow, even expect, legislators to trade influence for local advantage (pork and wealth redistribution to local interests). As a foundation, America must turn, change its heart, and adopt a near-universal individual/personal allegiance of the population to the God of the Bible. Such is a prerequisite to re-establishing the greatness of America.

This condition, this personal turning of every soul over to communion with God on an intimate, heartfelt, committed level, is problematic, given the modern man’s demand for Aristotelian/logical/empirical proof of any proposition that is believed without doubt or reservation. The Gospel of Jesus as Lord and Savior was not presented as a logically tight defense of that proposition. Rather, Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” To substantiate His claim of divinity, He used the fulfillment of prophecy, consistency of His teachings with the Mosaic law and prophets, and His demonstration of power/authority to act in the Father’s name when He performed miracles and forgave sins. He was crucified and executed unjustly, having committed no crime against God or man. Being without sin, Satan had no writ to hold Him, and He overcame death. He rose from the grave and ascended into Heaven to rule and reign with the Father. He then sent the Holy Spirit to guide every man’s heart. He promised that if we believe in Him (which I understand in the context of the Gospels and Epistles to mean committing our lives to follow His teachings and listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit), we will be spared the isolation from fellowship with God due our violation of His law.

But, given that many in modern America accept only scientific experiments and theory as the standard of objective truth, there is a widespread replacement of Biblical authority with the authority of science. As a result, many moderns have used the explanations of evolution, psychology, and physics to give life, existence, morality, and meaning. Thus, for the segment of the population who demand objective and logical proof of God’s existence to believe the Gospel, I have developed a model of the physical universe that is deeper, more granular, and connects the physical universe directly to God. This new model/paradigm about the understructure of the universe may make it easier for modern man to rationalize God’s existence. In turn, this new way of seeing the universe may allow the modern psyche to connect with the drama of the Gospel and accept the morality/teachings of Jesus Christ as the true/absolute standard of societal morality.

Alternatively, praying for God to reveal the truth of the Gospel may be a more direct path to the heart and faith. John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Personal transformation is the foundation of societal transformation. In addition, men must act proactively and choose righteous acts as individuals, groups, and governments to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. Sanctification/elimination of the force of corruption in government is a crucial element of this reformation of American society.

For this reformation, we must rely on democracy (the agreement of citizens/the electorate/society to vote and install leaders and accept policy by the majority). Democracy allows for peaceful adoption and transition of power and policy. As a Republic, America’s democracy is moderated by laws that protect the rights of the minority. The Constitution allows only laws consistent with the Biblical principles it was based on.

Some of the changes that must be adopted to reverse the societal decay include 1) ensuring voting/ballot integrity, 2) vetting conservative/Godly candidates, 3) full disclosure of campaign income and expenditures, 4) eliminating government officials’ stock/market trading, 5) reducing regulations, 6) prohibiting government propaganda from selling its domestic agenda, 7) eliminating government employee unions, and 8) eliminating wasteful spending (earmarks, pork).

Regulations are basically codified morality. Government regulation burdens business and kills the joy of life. Living in the spirit of the law gives life. When people live in the spirit of Godliness, government regulation of every aspect of business and private life is unnecessary. Life should be lived well and right, and that sense of right living should arise spontaneously from within. Such a wellspring of life can spring forth when people have taken the Bible’s words and listened to the Holy Spirit speak into their lives. Our freedom from the oppressive burden of government regulations depends upon a deeply felt, known, and lived society-wide Godliness.

I believe the temptation to corruption (trading influence for wealth, sex, and power) is universal. However, yielding to corruption may be more common in the urban environment, given the concentration of rebels against Godly morality in a dense population. (The proximity of like-minded sinners allows self-sustaining colonies/support groups to form and ally against God’s law.) While all humans are susceptible to these temptations, holding government office is uniquely destructive, as wielding the state’s power magnifies the effects and availability of satisfying these human hungers.

Transparency and accountability are the tools of society to check/dissuade the would-be corrupt government officials. Knowledge (being informed about the details of public policy, expenditures, and the problems of society), wisdom (being able to perceive the human consequences/implications/long-term and chaotic effects of law), commitment to service (establishing Godly law), and absence of corruption (trading influence for personal benefit) are the hallmarks of a good government.

Men are seduced by enslaving philosophies, which include 1) communism (Godless egalitarianism dictated by oligarchs), 2) illuminism (the rule of Satan on Earth), 3) materialism (man as the ultimate moral authority), and 4) universal tolerance of all philosophies (man as God). There are two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and all that opposes God. Man’s animal passions and mind naturally oppose God, but the fruit of that worship is pain.

A society/population/culture of Godliness is at the heart of a non-corrupt government. Every man in society striving/committing/desiring to live according to Godly principles is the deep solution to countering the innate human attraction to temptation. Until humanity embraces Godliness in culture and as the guiding principle in governance, all systems and tactics adopted to combat corruption and enslaving philosophies will be inadequate.