The urban prairie

EXPLORE THE Midwest and you spend lots of time between places. Flat expanses are “littered with has-been towns” as Richard Longworth wrote a decade ago. His comment is not much appreciated in places like Assumption, Illinois (population 1,066 and falling). Then again, some Assumption residents express their own prejudice. “People down here want to push Chicago out of Illinois,” says Chris, who sells high-tech farm equipment. The city is too liberal and its voters too dominant. Dan Caulkins, a Republican state representative, sees a “cultural, political, economic divide” pitting Chicago “versus the rest”. Those white-collar Chicagoans “run by one party for generations” might be from a different country. Yet the Midwest’s metro areas are outgrowing states around them. Rural folk may not admit it, but it is urban ones who pay their subsidies.