Thanks for writing an intriguing article. It would be interesting to see you consider some of the late 19th and early twentieth century efforts to merge the working and farming class into one political movement in the United States. The populists who supported much stronger government intervention in the economy failed to attract support from the working class in cities. The populists and farmers alliances could not maintain their unity over concerns about racial integration and the desirability of merging with the Democrats.

During the Great Depression a Farmer Labor Party similarly tried to merge the two groups. Although they achieved great success in Minnesota under the leadership of Floyd Olson, the success of the more moderate New Deal, prevented more radical groups from getting a national foothold in American politics.

I think that in understanding the divide between rural and urban areas that it equally important to consider the role of religion and culture. Rural America in the late 1910s and 1920s was a hotbed of activity for the Ku Klux Klan. Focusing their opposition on Jews, Catholics, socialists, and immigrants, as well as Black Americans, they were not inclined to merge politically with diverse cities and unions with a more socialist lean.

Obama famously said of his inability to attract rural support in the 2008 campaign that some of those folks were bitter and clung to their guns and religion. While less offensive than Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables comment," it is not difficult to see how urban elite politicians would struggle to earn the farm vote.

Only by understanding these uniquely American elements of the divide between farmers and workers can we understand the chasm that divides so many Americans today.