Comment by scarface74

You almost had it when you said “electoral politics”. But then you missed the mark. The entire federal system in the US is built to favor rural areas. From the 2 Senators/state where CA only has the same number of Senators as the least populous states in US, the Electoral College method of presidential voting where twice since 2000 the person with the most popular votes lost the election, and gerrymandering where the party in congress doesn’t represent the popular vote in nearly the same proportion.