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The "coastal elites" narrative is complete bs. Its a fake narrative created to drum up sympathy for conservative Trump voters. People in cities have to learn and respect rural culture? Why don't rural Trump voters ever get told to learn and respect the culture of urban diversity?
Part of the disingenuousness of the "coastal elites" narrative is that it includes the largely nonwealthy POC demo as elites, while the white rurals who are more wealthy than them are considered "real Americans." This is a highly racialized argument masquerading as class/culture
The argument is also often wrong because it insinuates that people living in cities always have more political power. This is clearly false. Many southern states have decent size cities with large Black populations, Black mayors, and white rural still dominates state legislature
This dynamic is similar at the national level, in a large part due to the Electoral College and the Senate. Why does California only get two Senators when rural Wyoming also gets two Senators? How can winning a majority of the voters still result in a national Presidential loss?
Rural voters have TONS of political advantages over those living in cities, with the Senate and Electoral College being the clearest examples. Rural whites also get cultural sympathy that urban POC do not get: Just look at the coverage/political action on crack vs opioid crisis!
So when ppl talk about "coastal voters need to be more empathetic of rural voters" understand that they are pushing a highly racialized argument that is wrong both morally and on the merits. In many salient ways, rural voters are disproportionately more powerful than us in cities
