For a couple of centuries the rise in the urban population and its increasing importance in elections has looked inexorable. But no longer. Recent elections have shown the impact of a resurgent rural vote that rejects city ways of life. J D Vance's 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy identified the dissatisfaction of rural America, and Trump has gone on to describe American cities as 'killing fields', 'cesspools' and 'sh***holes'. Mass rural protests have been seen with the Gilets Jaunes in France and the Dutch farmer movement. Rural voices that have been ""left behind"" are driving politics and culture with a 32% greater Republican support in rural areas.
Will rural values become ever more influential in culture? Has the internet made it possible for rural voters to become more organised, and will it reverse the population shift to the town as more choose to live in the countryside and work remotely? Are we witnessing a long-term shift to the right, or is the political split between rural and urban one that might be reversed?
