As election nears, experts explore issues uniting rural, urban voters

By Suzanne Potter, Producer

During this contentious election season, people may think rural and urban voters are hopelessly divided but experts said it is largely a myth.

The University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy is hosting a webinar on Oct. 21 on understanding rural voters.

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, professor of public policy at the university, said urban and rural voters actually have quite a bit in common.

“Their values are very much aligned on the basics,” Currid-Halkett reported. “We all care about the environment. We care about our families. We hope for a better future for our country. We believe in democracy.”

The University of Chicago’s General Social Survey found rural and urban Americans share the same basic values when it comes to their belief in God, environmentalism and social policy. But she observed you would never know it from the false stereotypes permeating cable news and talk radio.

Currid-Halkett noted most high-quality journalism these days is hidden behind paywalls, making it hard to access for the average voter.

“I think if we had easier access to understand varying political perspectives, we might, one, realize we aren’t so divided,” Currid-Halkett contended. “And two, we might get a sense of why people think differently than us, but it’s very hard to do that in the current way we get media.”

The webinar will also feature speakers from Colby College, the Center for Sustainable Development, the Brookings Institution, and the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC Dornsife.

Disclosure: The University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences and USC Price School of Public Policy contribute to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Arts and Culture, Cultural Resources, and Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, visit https://www.publicnewsservice.org/dn1.php.

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