It's hard to talk about how urban and rural America get framed politically without sounding like you're dismissing one or the other. The fact is, rural America stands in for "real" America in a lot of talking points, but actual rural concerns are rarely addressed in politics.

Anyway, seeing the usual ridiculous talk about California and New York from the usual suspects.

As always, they ignore the actual fact that huge numbers of Americans live in these places, that California and New York have large rural populations, and that most Americans (80%) live in urban communities.

It's racism, plain and simple.

The population of Los Angeles is four million people.

If you can reach people in Los Angeles, that should be seen as reaching a huge and diverse population of real Americans, not a reason for people to wring their hands about whether you can really talk to Americans.

New York City has over 8 and a half million people. Again, that shouldn't be treated as a weird outlier.

The combined populations of New York City and Los Angeles alone would make them one of the most populated states in the union.

The part that always makes me anxious when I write something like this is that it will then be interpreted as saying that rural concerns don't matter, when they do, and rural communities tend to be poorly served by their political usefulness.

The political usefulness of voters in majority white areas is great for framing a politician with wildly unpopular ideas as reaching the people who "count." But that doesn't mean those people get the resources they need.

A lot of the ideas we're told are essential because "real" Americans love them are ideas that are nationally not at all popular. And honestly, every place has voters of every stripe and reporters just reach out to the same five people over and over again.

How often do we see an interview with an undecided voter who turns out to be a Republican party chair with unusual wealth for the area who has already been interviewed ten times?

And how often do we see a piece like this excellent Mother Jones article that profiled people of color in rural America? https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/we-just-feel-like-we-dont-belong-here-anymore/

Why are you profiling the land owners and not the people who work the land?