they re losing the power they once held

Yes, please support the strategy of Democrats kissing off the rural areas, especially with the electoral college. I look forward to seeing how that pays off.

The Census Bureau does say that rural areas are growing, on average. The unanswered question is: are they growing more rapidly or more slowly than urban and suburban areas?

If rural areas are growing, but at a slower rate than urban and suburban areas, they’re losing the power they once held. Maybe JWG is confusing absolute growth with relative growth.

That’s a common Republican bamboozle.

And JWG, I can t cite it chapter and verse, but the book makes a pretty good case with government data that rural America is losing population

It’s easy to look up. Who to believe…the Census Bureau who claims rural areas (on average) are growing, or the authors who claim rural areas are “dying off” (probably by only looking at a few specific areas)?
In the late 90’s, rural America was not growing as fast as it had been a few years earlier. Maybe the authors confuse a slower growth rate with “cuts”? It’s a common Democratic error.

An interesting sidebar is that because I’m a black Democrat, people automatically assume I know anything about the city. The closest I’ve gotten to “the city” is the fact that my current job is located in a big city. I’m a suburban kid, and have lived in the ‘burbs in four states – California, Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland. One of my biggest battles is in getting liberals to stop being so snobby about the burbs, in the same way that cons are derisive of the urban areas.

wouldn t non-metro areas include suburbs?

No. Suburban residents are defined as “those living in metropolitan areas but outside central cities.”

much of the children of rural America are going to the cities and  burbs where the jobs are

Well, according to the Census Bureau:

Between 1995 and 2000, more people moved into nonmetropolitan territory from metropolitan areas than vice versa.

Additionally, they state (with data) that this has been the trend since the 70’s. Now I didn’t see any age-related data, and it’s certainly reasonable to expect those looking for jobs to migrate toward the cities while retirees move away. But it also seems reasonable to court the rural vote when it is experiencing a net migration.

And Jwg, you’re absoluelty right. Rural =/= Heartland. There are rural areas everywhere in this country, not just in the middle. If that is the impression that I gave some you, i stand corrected.

“The term “Heartland” is also frequently used to describe the region in the United States that lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. It is also used for other areas of the US which are culturally similar to the Heartland; for example, the Stater Bros. supermarket chain, which is concentrated in the inland counties of southern and central California, ran TV commercials for many years using the slogan “in the Heartland” to refer to inland counties such as San Bernardino County, Kern County and Riverside County being culturally more similar to the central United States than to coastal California.”

http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0472269.html

Pronunciation: (härt’land”, -lund), [key]
 n.
1. the part of a region considered essential to the viability and survival of the whole, esp. a central land area relatively invulnerable to attack and capable of economic and political self-sufficiency.
2. any central area, as of a state, nation, or continent: a vineyard in California’s heartland.

Your answers on this thread are very similar to the answers we have received from the Bush administration, actually-

1. Technically correct, but deceptive in meaning.
Example:  The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa .

and
2. Suggesting concencus when none exists, for example:
“I don’t think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.”

You’re usually pretty good, but you really shouldn’t get all nitpicky about stupid general terms such as “heartland”