It’s right in their backyards
Red states and rural folks are hooked on the idea that they are all living in Mayberry RFD or some empty rust belt town with no people, largely because of the way the media talks about urban and rural people. On the one hand you have screeching feminazis and murderous gangsters and on the other you have kindly (white) Christian working folks and hard scrabble military vets.
It just ain’t so: