Another commenter mentioned that the Democrats are effectively the metropolitan party (and the "Clinton Archipelago" map [0] from this NYTimes article "Two Amer

Another commenter mentioned that the Democrats are effectively the metropolitan party (and the "Clinton Archipelago" map [0] from this NYTimes article "Two Americas of 2016" [1] shows it fairly well). But, I think the article misses an even more important factor. what problems the government fixes is less divisive than how those problems are fixed. This how question is much more important in preventing Republicans and Democrats from working together. Both parties want to solve most of the problems that plague cities: housing, transportation, poverty, education, etc [2]. What differs is how they intend to solve those issues. The ideological underpinning of the right is to solve problems by reducing government involvement and/or increasing people's ability to be responsible for their own lives (and possibly suffer bad outcomes, deserved or not): deregulation of business, lowering taxes on high-end professionals and rich people, school choice, public-private partnership in infrastructure. Meanwhile, the left generally tries to increase outcomes universally, even for people who have made bad choices: increasing services used by the poor, focusing on public education that is accessible to everyone, investing in public transportation provided by the government (and with subsidies so that the poor can afford to use it). The difference is that the right doesn't address issues directly. I think this is because they don't think it's the government's problem in the first place. Rather, they try to fix the broader environment instead. Free from this ideological aversion to government, Democrats advocate for directly investing in the issue. [0] https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/2016/11/14/trump-clinton-islands/af7a8cd53827480ea1547b3a5bfcea013c158609/clinton_v2-Artboard_6.png https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/2016/11/14/trump-clint... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/16/us/politics/the-two-americas-of-2016.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/16/us/politics/t... [2] For people on the left who are unfamiliar with right-wing interest in these issues, AEI has tons of research and events on them. Granted, most Republicans are not interested in these issues. Edit: clarity