"Democracy," that is a system of government in which the free citizens take an active part and theoretically control the affairs of state, is a creation of URBAN culture.
Democracy was born in the ancient Greek CITY-state of Athens.
The ancient Greek word for "city-state" was "polis," from which we get our modern word "politics."
In ancient Athens, the Greek's had a word for the citizen who took an active interest in the affairs of the "polis." He was called a "poli-eetis." In contrast, they also had a word for the person who took NO INTEREST in the affairs of the "polis" and who was only concerned with his own private affairs. This word was "idiotis," from which we derive our modern word "idiot."
A lot of exurbanites are people who strike me as those who have no appreciation for how their lives are tied into the commonweel. In fact, they seem intent upon escaping the urban commonweel so that they can go off and "cacoon" in sterile, antiseptic, enclaves where they and their children can feel save to acquire and consume as they build bigger McMansions and aquire still bigger SUVs.
In modern Greek, the word for "civilized" is "politismenos," which can be translated into "shaped or influenced by the culture of the city." Or, to put it more olloquially, "citified."
The rival military power to democratic Athens was oligarchic and militaristic Sparta. Sparta was really a collection of small villages. The Spartan free class lived off of the agricultural labor of the "helots," who were essentially the large number of brutally subjugated peasantry that were no more than the agricultural worker-slaves of the Spartans.
At one time, the Spartans had an emerging artitistic culture that kept in step with the cultures of the other developing ancient Greek city-states. But at some point, the free Spartans, realizing that their way of life depended upon being able to continue to brutally subjugate the helots, made a conscious decision to eschew all things having to do with the arts and culture and to focus exclusively on the development of an efficient, brutal, and effective military machine.
Indeed, for all of their military ferocity and efficiency, the Spartans were considered by the other Greek city-states as the most culturally backward and rough-hewn of all the Greeks. In that sense, they fit much of what we consider today to be our stereotype of the modern red-state conservative: not too informed, not too sophisticated, selfish, authoritarian, not too educated, etc.
Today, in America, the exurbs overwhelmingly vote for a party and for candidates from that party that has shown time and time again that it has no respect for real democracy, and instead sees the concept of the "will of the people" as something that needs to be manipulated or worse, completely subverted. Indeed, the current crop of politicans selcted by these people also are highly militaristic in their approach to world affairs, and have no qualms about using whatever force they deem necessary to get their way.
Interestingly, a lot of these "exurban" areas were predominantly rural in terms of their historical character. Specifically, think of the South and the fuedal culture of its agrarian "landed gentry," and the way that they kept not only blacks down, but also poor whites, while they alone had the power.
Some things to consider when thinking about today's urban/exurban divide in America.