Rural Democrats rebel against Obama!

Politico — which has emerged as one of the top political journals in the country – has actually been taking an interest in rural issues of late: a very cool development for those of us who think small towns remain a compelling piece of the national picture.

This morning, they report on growing restlessness among rural Democrats with a wide array of Obama Administration policies.

Angered by White House decisions on everything from greenhouse gases to car dealerships, congressional Democrats from rural districts are threatening to revolt against parts of President Barack Obama’s ambitious first-year agenda.

“They don’t get rural America,” said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who represents California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley. “They form their views of the world in large cities.”

The reality is very simple: As Democrats compete in more “marginal” districts — NY’s 20th and 23rd, for example — they elect more rural and more conservative politicians.

That brings a real cultural tension into the Democratic Party, where leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are definitively urban players.

(The outlier here is Senator and majority leader Harry Reid, from rural Searchlight, Nevada.)

So far – despite Politico’s take – Dems have been remarkably successful at taking and holding these red-tinted rural districts.

Also, dissent within their ranks pales compared with the ideological divides within the GOP.

Still, 2010 will test whether Democrats have reached their logical horizon, or whether there’s more fertile ground out there.

On the other side of this equation, there’s very little evidence to date that Republicans are finding ways to reintroduce themselves to the far more populous urban and urban communities where Dems dominate.

Remember: With each Census and each redistribution of House seats that follows, there will be fewer rural House seats and more suburban and urban House seats.

So this “small town problem” that Democrats wrestle with gets smaller demographically each year…