There’s a huge asymmetry between the two parties’ approaches to the regions where their rival party dominates. Through both the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, President Biden has jump-started investment in rural America, places that private capital had largely abandoned in recent decades. The Democrats see this public investment as a strategy to co-opt rather than preempt, to gain a political foothold on opposition turf. Republicans, by contrast, view cities as the Visigoths viewed Rome. Unable to sufficiently disenfranchise urban voters, they are moving to disempower those voters’ governments. In the battle now before us to preserve and advance democracy, the fight for cities looms large.