Democracy Paradox Podcast
About the Episode:

Why have rural and urban Americans grown so far apart politically even when they often hold similar views on policy? Suzanne Mettler joins Democracy Paradox to explain how economic decline, partisan identity, elite overreach, and America’s political institutions have transformed the rural-urban divide into a serious threat to democracy.

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Show Notes:

In this episode of the Democracy Paradox, Suzanne Mettler joins Justin Kempf to discuss her new book, Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy, coauthored with Trevor Brown. Their conversation explores how a once-modest political divide between rural and urban Americans became one of the defining cleavages in American politics - and why Mettler believes polarization by place poses distinctive challenges for democracy.

Mettler traces the beginnings of the divide to economic changes that hit rural communities particularly hard beginning in the 1980s and 1990s. Agricultural consolidation, job losses in mining and manufacturing, population decline, and changes in trade policy all contributed to a weakening of rural support for Democrats. She explains why NAFTA became especially consequential: although many congressional Democrats opposed the agreement, Democratic President Bill Clinton ultimately signed it into law, helping reshape how many rural voters understood the party and whose interests it represented.

The conversation then turns to what Mettler and Brown call “sequential polarization.” Economic dislocation came first, but over time many rural voters also began to perceive the Democratic Party as increasingly dominated by highly educated elites who did not understand or respect their communities. Mettler discusses conflicts over renewable-energy projects as an example of how rural residents can feel decisions are being imposed upon them without meaningful local input, and she explains how Donald Trump successfully tapped into a broader strain of rural anti-elitism.

Finally, Justin and Suzanne consider what the rural-urban divide means for American democracy. The Constitution and electoral system give less populated places disproportionate influence through institutions such as the Senate and Electoral College, making geographic polarization especially consequential. At the same time, one-party dominance can weaken accountability within rural communities, while physical distance between political opponents can deepen partisan hostility. For Mettler, overcoming the rural-urban divide ultimately requires rebuilding political coalitions that cross geographic lines.

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