Country Mouse, City Mouse, Obama

Interesting story here on President Obama's goals for urban renewal; that is, a strategy focused on revitalizing America's cities. It is interesting because President Obama's election signifies nothing if not the ascendancy of urban life, and it is interesting because of the political dynamic it is setting up which will come home to roost in upcoming elections.

Let's face it, the United States hasn't been much for electing Presidents who hail from "cities" or who refer to cities as their hometowns. Barack Obama is the first "city-dweller" (to the extent that his peripatetic life can be seen as having been lived anywhere) to occupy the White House since JFK--who really wasn't a city dweller (prep school, Hyannis, oh, and some time in Boston) but who came across as urbane, sophisticated, and city-like.

Obama is different; not only is he a "city" guy, he revels in it, as his past as a "community organizer" will attest. America is increasingly urbanizing--that is, people are moving to and toward its major metropolitan areas. This is not a bad thing for Democrats and liberals, as people who live in close proximity to each other tend over time to develop the inability to do very simple things for themselves and then come to rely on government to provide them.

That said, this urbanization is a relatively new trend, one that will bring into sharp relief the already stark electoral maps in which Democratic presidential support was clustered in and around cities. We are moving increasingly toward an even more bifurcated political system, one in which city-dwellers will continue to flex their political muscle to the detriment of rural and suburban populations. The impact on contemporary politics will be substantial.