National poll reflects North Carolina divisions

by | Sep 6, 2017 | Editor's Blog, North Carolina, Polling | 6 comments

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll looks at how and why the country is so divided. The findings clearly reflect the reality here in North Carolina. The fault lines fall mainly between rural and urban dwellers and educated and less-educated citizens. Globalization plays a major role in the divisions and highlights the discrepancies of views between the winners and losers.

According to the NBC analysts, “Overall, 55 percent of respondents in the poll say they’re comfortable with the nation becoming more diverse and tolerant of different lifestyles, gender roles, languages, cultures and experiences.” While that seems a relatively evenly divided nation, there are sharp differences along political and cultural lines. Only 30% of Republicans are comfortable with the changes while 77% of Democrats are. In addition, 65% of urban dwellers embrace the diversity while only 38% of rural residents do.

In North Carolina, we see these divisions clearly in our politics and our quality of life. Much of rural North Carolina is reeling from changes due to globalization and changing attitudes. First, tobacco became a virtual pariah crop and eastern North Carolina saw a prime source of revenue dry up in just a few short years. Next, NAFTA all but destroyed the textile and furniture industries in the state, leaving towns across the piedmont with aging and shrinking populations.

At the same time, the banking and tech industries took off. Charlotte and the Research Triangle Park became economic powerhouses that made North Carolina one of the fastest growing states in the nation. They added more than enough jobs to keep the state’s overall unemployment rate low, but added to the discrepancies between rural and urban life. While stores and small businesses shuttered across much of the rural piedmont, developments the size of small towns popped up in places like Cary and Weddington in Union County.

The poll reflects just such differences. According to the Wall Street Journal analysis, “Rural Americans and people without a four-year college degree are notably more pessimistic about the economy and more conservative on social issues. Those groups make up an increasingly large share of the GOP.” They’ve seen fewer benefits from globalization and free trade, which is ironic since the Reagan Revolution sped up both.

Democrats are quickly becoming a more educated and urban party, reflecting the changes and benefits of globalization. However, they’re also becoming a younger party with less reliable voters. In contrast, the GOP reflects a shrinking population but it’s becoming older with more consistent voters. In the long run, prospects look brighter for Democrats who represent a more satisfied portion of the electorate. In the short term, Republican represent people who are angry and grievance, not satisfaction, is more of a motivator to go to the polls.

6 Comments

  1. speakingfrankly

    Did NAFTA cause the film industry to flee NC? Did NAFTA cause the exit of Miller Brewing and Ball Containers? Did NAFTA cause the loss of both Mercedes and BMW factories that could have located here instead of in SC and Alabama? Did NAFTA cause Cannon and many other textile mills to begin outsourcing their manufacturing to China? And finally, did NAFTA cause our state’s workers to fail to be educated for future jobs rather than see our youth leave the state because of dim prospects. Did NAFTA cause the NC legislature to ignore PUBLIC education in order to fill the coffers of tax-exampt “Christian” schools that are accountable to NO ONE. Let’s re-examine a few of the claims that FREE TRADE is the problem when it lies with the voters of this state and their belief that their cowboys in Raleigh would do all that is within their power to keep NC under-educated, uninformed, poor, white, and above all, Republican.

  2. Walter S. Freeman

    Yes, grievance is a stronger motivator to action and this Indy/Dem is more aggrieved than I have even been in my 70 years on this Earth. It will take way more than Trump and his Nazis to keep me away from the polls. And for the first time, I’ll be manning a phone and taking on organizing tasks in the mid-terms. The Gaggle Of Peckerheads is on their way out.

  3. bob

    I remember Ross Perot saying he could use his big ears to hear the “giant sucking sound” of jobs being sucked out of the country and into Mexico and Pakistan. He was right.

    • Christopher Lizak

      That was the GOP/Dem plan all along. NAFTA has enabled American corporations to essentially engage in an end-run around tax and labor laws to massively increase their profits while suppressing labor costs.

      One could argue that its a better system of exploitation than the traditional American practice of importing disempowered labor and then abusing the hell out of them to make them fear the law and abandon their rights.

      But you should see some of the hell-holes at the border.

  4. Walt de Vries, Ph.D.

    Right on, Thomas. You, and others, have outlined what will happen to the GOP in North Carolina over the next few election cycles. There is no escaping demographics and they are clear and, indeed, pre-determined. This state’s current Republican leadership–centered in the Legislature–has opted for short term gains, but the reversal of their fortunes will be swift and certain. North Carolina Republicans could be adjusting, widening their appeal and encouraging those not part of the GOP to get on board, but–with their current legislative leadership–are marching in the wrong direction.
    Several years from now, the Republican leaders of 2017 will not be able to say they did not know better. Such is the result of looking to the past for the future.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!