Demography and Politics

A stark statistic on American voting:

In 2012, only one county with a population density of more than 1,000 persons per square mile—a low bar that includes many, many suburbs—voted for Mitt Romney. That was Orange County, that conservative bastion of Southern California (and President Obama still hit 45 percent there). The rest, cities and suburbs alike, all went blue.

I think this gets at the basis of partisan voting in the US better than anything else. It's "stand on your own feet" vs. "we all have to get along and help each other."