It’s not the liberal vs conservative. I am an African American living in a county that made national news 30 years ago for not exactly being welcoming to minorities. If you’re from GA you know where I’m talking about. Just search for “Oprah GA”. It’s definitely still very conservative but it feels more Romney conservative than Trump populist. I’ve never felt any weird vibes here.
Well, what I was getting at is that there are places in Georgia that aren't Atlanta metro that have far more in common with ATL than they do e.g., Collquit County.
It's the same as in most states - the divide is urban/rural and racial diversity. Places like Columbus, Savannah, Macon, or Augusta don't feel anything like the rural counties.
I generally agree with you. Honestly, I'd largely argue that the difference is a population that isn't both insular and predominantly white.
Election results, obviously, are not the full story, but they do provide a glimpse of the divides present within Georgia.
If you look at non-urban counties that voted Clinton in the last election[1], you'll find that the consistent theme is a substantial black population.
But even within cities, I'd argue diversity plays a role. Fulton and Dekalb counties were most heavily in favor of Clinton in the metro ATL area, and they're both majority-minority counties.
That doesn’t tell you the whole story. There were a few groups of Trump voters. The people who actually agreed with his populist, racists rants, those who really lean libertarian or business conservatives but think that Republicans lean more to their liking and held their nose and voted for him. The religious conservatives who may not like him as a person but see him as a means to an end to get their agenda passed. And then you have the single issue voter that doesn’t care about anything except their one pet issue that would vote for anyone that shared their views on that one issue — i.e. anyone against any type of gun control.
I have friends and former coworkers I still hang out with that represent all of those types of Trump voters - except for the nationalist, populist.
