Retro v. metro

The Richmond paper has this column and a Louisiana TV station has this report, and earlier this month, the Washington Post had this review on a book by some old guy named John Sperling (not to be confused with Gene Sperling) called The Great Divide, which separates the U.S. into "retro" and "metro" states, and asserts that the success of Democrats is limited to the "metro" sphere.