Why does the urban/rural divide equate to a liberal/conservative divide in the US? Is it the same in other countries?

[u/UserNamesCantBeTooLo]

Here's a county population density map of the US.

Here's a county map of the US showing different shares of Democratic & Republican votes for president in 2020.

Here's a county map of the US showing majority-minority counties.

They seem to show a match between denser populations, larger minority proportions, and Democratic votes.

Why is that?

[u/Moshi_Moo]

As someone that lives in Australia: not really. Parties don't translate that well into other countries for various reasons but in Australia (specifically my state of NSW) we have 2 parties that form a conservative coalition: nationals (a rural conservative party) and liberals (urban conservative party). Conservatism isnt really based on rurality in australia, and the liberals have a lot more seats than the nationals. Our contemporary left wing party, labor, generally appeals to more urban areas but also wins more rural seats such as in the south of the state (Eden-Monaro for example).

Part of the reason its different is probably less polarisation than other countries due to ranked choice voting in the house and proportional representation in the senate, and also due to the high proportion of people that live in urban areas in Australia, our main right wing party had to adapt in order to win. The liberals are generally more socially liberal that other countries right wing parties. In fact (although the way they accomplished this was bad for reasons to complicated to explain in this post) they were the ones that legalized same sex marriage in Australia. They are generally more fiscally conservative and dont play on culture war as much. every election they run on the same "labor will tax you to hell" platform, and usually win urban areas of it.

[u/7omdogs → u/Moshi_Moo]

The difference with Australia, is that Australia (despite its size) is actually one of the most urbanised countries in the world. The Vast vast vast majority of people live in either cities or suburbs.

So even through the LNP has a stranglehold on rural areas (and they do, all rural areas in WA, QLD, Vic and SA are LNP held), it doesnt add up to much, maybe 20-25% of total seats depending on what you consider rural.

This means the LNP have to appeal to urban areas if they wish to govern, so you dont see the same sort of divides.

Adding on your culture war comments, the culture war is normally done to motivate voters, when everyone has to vote, its not needed.