In all the discussions railroad geeks like me have had about a stronger surviving US railroad passenger system/few-to-no airlines and Interstate highways, I don't know that I've seen this question ever come up:
Suppose that just like the 1940s, most people, even celebrities and relatively wealthy, traveled most of the time by train in the US - private cars or whatever, but still by train. (Use whatever POD you want.) This is in lieu of traveling by air. Now, the coastal liberal elites in the US have over the past 30 years or so evolved the condescending term "flyover country" for the swath of middle America that holds to different political and social values than they do. I think part of the reason it's so easy for such folk to use such a dismissive term is because they don't interact more than necessary with middle America - it's literally nothing more than what you "fly over" when traveling between NY and LA.
So, if the trip were being made on the ground, would greater interaction between the two groups occur, such that a term like "flyover country" never arises? Or would it be worse; the coastal elites would refer to middle America as "ride-through country" or something like that (and resent it even more because of how much longer the trip took)?
(This is a bit rambling, so I hope it makes sense.)
Suppose that just like the 1940s, most people, even celebrities and relatively wealthy, traveled most of the time by train in the US - private cars or whatever, but still by train. (Use whatever POD you want.) This is in lieu of traveling by air. Now, the coastal liberal elites in the US have over the past 30 years or so evolved the condescending term "flyover country" for the swath of middle America that holds to different political and social values than they do. I think part of the reason it's so easy for such folk to use such a dismissive term is because they don't interact more than necessary with middle America - it's literally nothing more than what you "fly over" when traveling between NY and LA.
So, if the trip were being made on the ground, would greater interaction between the two groups occur, such that a term like "flyover country" never arises? Or would it be worse; the coastal elites would refer to middle America as "ride-through country" or something like that (and resent it even more because of how much longer the trip took)?
(This is a bit rambling, so I hope it makes sense.)