That’s only true if people within states are more similar to each other on the relevant axes than to people in other states, right? If the real divide is rural/urban or education, then comparing states isn’t very useful even if some states are more rural or educated than others.
The fact that the county-level data is bad is unfortunate and makes the county-level analysis less useful, but doesn’t fix any of the problems with state-level data.
That’s only true if people within states are more similar to each other on the relevant axes than to people in other states, right? If the real divide is rural/urban or education, then comparing states isn’t very useful even if some states are more rural or educated than others.
The fact that the county-level data is bad is unfortunate and makes the county-level analysis less useful, but doesn’t fix any of the problems with state-level data.