In the 495 counties of Patchwork Nation’s Emptying Nests, sometimes the easiest way into “town,” or at least into the “Community Center,” is a golf cart. The most powerful governing body may very well be the condo board or the senior center’s executive committee.

» Read more about the Patchwork Nation communities
» Listen to Dante talk about Emptying Nests on The Takeaway

The country’s Emptying Nest counties are scattered in the Rust Belt and the Midwest with some in the south. And the 22 million people who live in them are not all collecting Social Security, but they are watching their kids move on and thinking about what to do with that extra bedroom. These are not places full of wealthy elderly with plans for cooking trips to Italy. On the whole they have below-average median household incomes — about $35,000. They are also not a pool of diversity. Emptying Nest counties are more than 94 percent white, with strong evangelical bases.

For all those reasons, as one might guess, they are reliably Republican.

The biggest issue for people in Emptying Nest communities is simply holding on to the money they have. When the nation talks about futzing with entitlements or revising Social Security, these are the places that scream the loudest. And in this election the slumping economy has real impacts. When the Federal Reserve Board lowers the prime lending rate, often the Emptying Nests dividend incomes take a hit. And inflation often hammers the fixed-income residents here.

In a “change” election, these places are also at the back of the line when it comes to social change. These are not places that are interested in gay marriage, abortion or even, say, an African-American president. They are among the least likely to favor civil unions. Nearly 40 percent of the people that live here want to ban abortion. And 80 percent who live here say “blacks should work their way up like other groups.” Those survey results were among the highest numbers on those questions. And as the United States eventually liberalizes on those fronts, these Emptying Nest residents are going be among the group trying to hold back the wave.

– Dante Chinni

Read more about the Patchwork Nation communities at The Takeaway’s election Web site, vote2008.thetakeaway.org »