America has 50 states. but the concept of states is starting to transform into what could be called “urban clusters”.
The most prosperous parts of America is the Northeast Corridor, from New England down through the Middle Atlantic, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
The second most prosperous area is the Pacific Coast, including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
The third leading area is the Great Lakes cluster, including Chicago as its center, but also Minneapolis Milwaukee, Detroit and St Louis.
After that, we have Central and South Florida, and the Texas cluster from Dallas Fort Worth down to Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, and Atlanta Georgia-Charlotte North Carolina as the fourth urban cluster.
The fifth distinct area is the Mountain West centered around Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
Then there are the two other areas, far more rural and poor, with the Southeast–including Kentucky, West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee–being left behind, and still resisting social and economic change.
And finally the Great Plains and Upper West—the largest area geographically in the nation, the most backward and least populated area, very rural, an area where young people leave, as they see little economic opportunity for the long term–an area including much of Iowa along with North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho.
Notice that politically, the first three urban clusters are heavily more progressive and Democratic.
The fourth and fifth urban clusters are much more competitive between the Democrats and Republicans, and the progressive-conservative division is hotly contested, and will continue to be.
The sixth and seventh areas are reliably Republican and conservative, but have less clout in population and influence.
So the nation is clearly moving toward a more progressive stance for the long run, although large areas of the nation in land area resist that change with fury!