Editor's Notes: A Free Society Is an Urban Society

Liberal politicians absolutely should seek to win over rural voters. Paul Henry Rosenberg wrote for us about potential strategies to do so.

Can We Win Back Rurals?

Rebuilding the Democratic Party in rural areas is necessary to halt the nation’s undemocratic slide.

Liberal CurrentsPaul Henry Rosenberg

Political success requires living in reality. The reality is that rural voters both exist and exercise disproportionate power in our system. Politicians need to court them, even if it's just to "lose by less" in rural districts for statewide races.

But that does not mean that the rest of us, the 80 percent of Americans who live in urban areas, need to pretend that there is something superior about the countryside.

Cities have always been central to the project of liberalism. Without cities, freedom is simply unobtainable.