Midterms: How Rival Regional Cultures Explain Our Sharp Divides | Washington Monthly

It's interesting.

But wrong.


I grew up in a suburb or Grand Rapids, MI; an area placed firmly in "Yankeedom" in this article. And yes, there is a strong Dutch influence. The city of Holland is half an hour away, they have tulip festivals, celebrate windmills, the works. But the Dutch of West Michigan are NOT the Dutch of New Amsterdam. Yes, they are about self-sacrifice for the greater good - but that is a greater good of their OWN community. And it is very much locally and concentrically focused. Self sacrifices for family, family sacrifices for neighbors, neighbors sacrifice for the parish/church church sacrifices for the village, etc. It is not self sacrifices for the nation. VERY strong conservative social values, too. If you think Southern Baptists are conservative, wait til you meet Dutch CRC. And 20 minutes in the other direction is the town of Marne. Which means nothing to y'all. But if I told you it was named Berlin right up until the 1930s, you might get an idea of another MAJOR cultural influence in the area.

Michigan, up until the last few years, was almost entirely red outside of metro Detorit and Flint. That isn't the "Yankeedom" tradition discussed in this article.

I can't speak with as much knowledge on the rest of the "rust belt" but I am pretty sure it is a similar story for them. While most of the rust belt falls in the "Midlands" area, he has a fair share of it in Yankeedom.

He also ignores the mass migrations and how those brought culture with them, not to mention the mass IMMIGRATIONS of the early 20th century. Most of the Midewest - which he has as parts of Yankeedom, the Midlands, Greater Appalachia, and even some of the Far West , was influenced Far more by these mass migrations and immigrations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries than by the colonial 17th and 18th century movements.

Great theory. I am sure he got paid a ton of money to come up with it. But not accurate.

I live in a rural northern Michigan county. We have far more in common with the values of "The Far West" and "Greater Appalachia," very little in common with the leftists/progressive "nanny-staters" of "The left Coast" and "Yankeedom."

From my experiences and places I've lived, he got the left coast correct.