Hmmmmm.....gonna have to disagree with your conclusion about veganism seeming inherently more liberal than conservative to you. By orders of magnitude, the largest vegan population on the planet consists of religiously and politically conservative people in the northern parts of India. Speaking of Western civilizations, the largest cohesive group of vegans consists of the Seventh-Day Adventists and, while perhaps not as religiously and politically conservative as evangelicals, they are far more so than progressives/liberals.
The fact is that this is NOT part of the culture war, and given that both sides are searching constantly for new areas to disagree about, I think that says something. And why on earth would you WANT it to be so? You want a polarized world on this topic? How many animals is THAT going to save? How about reaching out to people you disagree with politically to try to find areas of agreement rather than trying to find areas of disagreement? Unless you believe that everyone you disagree with politically is evil, then you shouldn't assume they have every characteristic we might want to ascribe to an evil person. To wit:
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart." Solzhenitsyn
A good example of the precise opposite of what you are proposing is the abortion issue. If we're honest, pro-choice people have some soul searching to do regarding the abortion issue raised by many other people in this thread. I assume we'd all be against harvesting unborn but alive cats, dogs, cows, pigs, or birds for use as resources (e.g., scientific research), because we think it will improve our health, or just because it is convenient, but we have no problem supporting the same for humans (for scientific research--think stem cells--for concerns about the health of the mother, or for convenience). Or, really for ANY reason, right? Why is an unborn cluster of dog cells untouchable but an unborn cluster of human cells is fair game? Or, I guess we can admit that it is ok to harvest unborn animals for scientific research because that cluster of cells is not really a dog yet, is not really a cat yet, is not really a cow yet, that seems to be the only escape hatch available. Ouch.
Also, referring to rural America as culturally irrelevant is just....so unbelievably condescending...not to mention untrue. Coastal elites are no better than the rural Americans they mock. Frankly, if the coastal elites weren't constantly acting as if they were superior, we wouldn't have the backlash that led to Trump.
Sorry for the tone of this message and I don't mean anything personal. You definitely hit a few of my touchy points as I am sure I have hit some of yours. I hope this little exchange can get a few people to think a little bit, nothing more.