There is a yearning in America to move beyond the hate and divisiveness promised by Donald Trump and the GOP. The Democratic ticket knows it—and is leaning into a commitment to community.
These are the ideals my parents raised five children to have. These ideals are why my youngest sister has been a nurse for over 30 years, and why I have been a college Math teacher for over 40 years. To serve our fellow citizens. To give others a "lift up". That is why I am so giddy with optimism about the Harris/Walz ticket. The ideals I grew up learning are being celebrated, not denigrated. Thank you, Steven, for putting that optimism into words.
I’m not the Bible thumper but I admit it has been ten years that I have been praying to stop Trump. I believe hundreds of millions of people across the OUR beautiful USA and the World have been praying, similarly.
At the beginning I believed our Constitution and Democracy would stop Trump. Then surely our Justices Department and laws would stop him. Naively, even after Trump appointed three Supreme Court Justices, I believed they would put Country above Party and abide by their oath that each swore.
The Harris-Walz ticket is the answer to our prayers. It brings me such joy to watch how they are electrifying crowds and huge momentum in such a short time (three weeks and one day upon writing this).
The people of this country are so very tired of the negative attitude of the GOP, and their focus on increasing the wealth of the already wealthy and giant corporations.
Harris and Walz are campaigning on positivity and inclusion and joy. They care about ordinary people like me and my family. The atmosphere of joy and light is so attractive to voters who are ready to lift each other up, and to help those who have been marginalized by the hate and division led by tfg and his adherents. Let’s spread the message of hope for the future as represented by the Democratic ticket. We have no where to go but up!
MAGA is about grievance of something lost…perceived status…or something never achieved which other achieved and is bitter, negative, and resentful. Trump personifies this…never had Daddy’s approval, never fully accepted in society, etc. there is a toxic, malignant group narcissism that goes with MAGA.
In sharp contrast, Harris and Walz are showing hope, kindness, compassion are strengths and provide a positive sense of belonging to see good things done. It is not about amassing power, but empowering all to choose their own course, to find their own happiness. It is not about control and rigid mandates for behavior of White Christian Nationalism, but allowing a live and let live (mind your own business) that generates innovation and diversity of thought that we all benefit from.
Or, fear of losing the advantage money buys and wanting to change the rules, now they have theirs. Harris and Walz are such great examples of America. The way to happiness is working, seeing hope and going for it. We have to help the billionaires be happy, despite their inclination toward laziness of wanting laws to protect their wealth.
I’m up early today. This is just what I needed this morning. Like minds and full of compassion for people . I know too many people I’ve had to give up on because they don’t share my view even though I respected them enough to listen where they’re at but it isn’t reciprocated. They’re behind me now because I can no longer see them as like minds. I did engage with a relative and gave her websites who tell you how you can help Harris/Walz. She was surprisingly open for it but admitted she never expresses her feelings with others she knows and I told her this was the most important thing to know exactly, that was what Project 2025 is telling us and that there were experts in explaining also because she admitted it was too long and she knows she wouldn’t understand it. I also told her I’m sending out postcards to swing states. I showed her what I was doing and the exact cost to me in dollars. After a while, I even told her how much I donated and her reply wasn’t “are you crazy” (which is what I expected) but “I need to donate to them too”. I emailed her all the links we talked about and she thanked me. Honestly this was the first positive I’ve seen. Someone brought it up to me after hearing that I just asked a maga to just read it and google a background of someone he approves/trusts to explain it in condensed form. Seriously it was like talking to a distrustful toddler who you had to convince they were better off without wet stinky diapers and going on the potty could achieve that for them instantly.
It did occur to me that I wasn’t and couldn’t be done. Even if I was truly tired of spending all my life away trying to read everything. I write fiction but I also usually read at least six books a week. ( yes my house needs regular vacuum and dusting so I hire it out). The election is cutting into all my free time to write and read to my hearts content. My r/l friends have dwindled away. My family and adult children all are Republican devotees who the minute I correct them with a fact AFTER they make a derogatory lie they say “ You’re always bringing up politics “ and I say “No , you brought up another lie about my candidate and I just simply and honestly told you the truth. That was it and the subject is closed unless you have proof.” As you can see I’m no longer invited to these “friends” get togethers but I realized I had my integrity, my critical thinking and they had nothing in their world to compare so it’s “we’re in, and you’re out” except “I’m no longer obligated to be in, so I’m out”.
I want more like minded people in my real life!
I can’t believe how long this took me to write, I’m better off caffeinated and not so whiny. Thanks for listening.
I call people like your relative “persuadables.” They are the voters we need to engage & to vote. Some are quiet because they don’t want to be attacked. Some are followers who’ve had doubts. Others felt they didn’t have a “home” or a stake in politics.
Here is a “follower” who reversed course after her prison sentence. She calls the consequences of that day “a scar” she must carry.
Everyone is persuadable. Each one needs to see the benefits of voting for Harris and BLUE up and down the ballot. As long as they see what’s in it for them. Note that the MAGA suck-up politicians bad mouth everything then assume the benefits of what good governance actually brings. To them. To their electorate. And the other side of the equation, how bad governance and quasi-fascist politicians take away from a flourishing democracy.
I don’t disagree that everyone needs to see the benefits & understand the options. That doesn’t mean they are all open to engage with facts.
For instance, people who folded their politics into their religion & believe anyone who isn’t one of them is doing the work of satan are not persuadable. They also tolerate little disagreement among themselves. Not embracing the delusions or not being open to a violent end for “godless leftists” if it is “god’s will” is not tolerated. Same story for information from outside the rabbit hole.
Maybe at some point they’ll be persuadable. But the ones I know belong to a relatively small subculture which is immune to information outside their existing views. They get their ‘facts’ from specific sources more closely related to Alex Jones than to reality. They still believe Biden sent military tanks into neighborhoods with health officials to conduct involuntary inoculations. The sheep, leftists, satan’s helpers etc. haven’t heard about it because the “deep state” covered it up.
Your experience is reflective for many of us. It is the unwillingness to calmly discuss what we see going on that is most chilling for me. That is how I learn new things, see different perspectives, change or modify ideas. It is hard not to float in a bubble when opposition refuses to engage.
This reminds me of Hillary Clinton's book It Takes A Village which concerns guiding children but can also be applied to adults-working together to help each other. Under trump, one is a lonely little petunia in an onion patch.
Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. --
Thanks for reprinting Warren’s comments. Out door-knocking yesterday I listened to an 88 year old gentleman describe growing up with nine siblings in two bedrooms with no running water, becoming a teacher and baseball coach, then starting a home supply business and hob-nobbing with the community’s wealthy and politically powerful, raising his family in the house he built 57 years ago (his son and daughter-in-law live next door). He voted for Trump in 2016 because he thought a businessman could best handle the economy but soon realized Trump was only in it for himself. Now the three of them are ardent Democrats and want nothing more than for Harris and Walz to soundly defeat Trump and Vance. I don’t doubt there are a lot more like him in our country.
I love this story. People, not all, but most are changing. They are very tired of the negativity and hatefulness Trump and his posse brings to the table.
"Also emanating from the pro-Trump crowd, sickening comments like this: “That’s what groomers do, too.” What kind of sick, twisted, and toxic mind immediately goes to that when confronted with a simple thing that most parents probably do every day, which is squat down so they can look their kids in the eye when they talk to them. Harris and Walz are drawing these huge crowds at their rallies because Americans are exhausted and sick to death of that garbage. I really hope we're seeing the beginning of the end of the MAGA movement.
It is a cheap go-to used by trump and politicians who use this style of politics. DeSantis is another one who uses it to justify his extremist agenda. It is used so often it diminishes the true danger of grooming - but works as a smear campaign because it puts their opponent on the defensive. If it leads to a “I am not a groomer” moment it lives on in video & other attack ads. (Think of Christine O’Donnell’s “I am not a witch” or Nixon’s “I am not a crook.”)
Your response is perfect:
“What kind of sick, twisted, and toxic mind immediately goes to that when confronted with a simple thing that most parents …” teachers, child care workers, (etc) do every day.
Spent yesterday in NE Ohio canvassing for Sherrod Brown. Republicans too polite to slam the door worked memories of their last trip to a GOP shrine, like Clarance Thomas’ birthplace, into the conversation.
But, some folks shook their heads about the weak character at the head of their party and predicted Sherrod would beat the Republican car dealer who was successfully sued for ripping off his employees.
Perfectly written, Steven. We are tired of all their rhetoric & hate. It’s ALL they’ve got. So much so, now EVERY Republican absolutely HATES Democrats. We must run the all out of office in November. We’re at record numbers daily pedophiles being arrested, anger being thrown out for everyone who doesn’t think like they do. It’s been an extremely tiring nearly 10 years of our lives. I for one am ready to move on. Care for our neighbors. Care for our planet. Like John Lennon said, give peace a chance.
I live in the countryside 30 miles south of the Twin Cities. I live in what is, if I judge by the frequency of flags with the blue stripe, Trump Country. But my neighbor across the road comes over to blow out my driveway in the winter after a big storm, when my landlord's plowman is late in coming. He stops by once in awhile just to say hi to my springer spaniel who adores him. If I were in any kind of need, he and his wife would help. I pray that the Republicans have vastly underestimated Americans by thinking they all share their scorched earth/civil war stance and fearful, hateful visions of the future. Even among Trump voters, there must be many who have not forgotten what neighbors do. If nothing else, Kamala and Tim may be reawakening the legions who were raised in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
It has been made clear throughout history that people can destroy the very notion of what it means to be human…or be an unlimited force for good in the world. Each time Americans have been confronted with this powerful choice, we find our way back in the end. I don’t know why, but there seems to be a delight in the power of joy and laughter that draws us like moths to the flame of the promise of America. Perhaps it is because, like all children, we may be curious about horror movies, but in the end, we all want to believe in the goodness of ourselves and fellow citizens…deep down.
There’s a line from “Dodsworth”, a wonderful movie about a wealthy couple grappling with the retirement. They make their first trip to Europe together on a ship where the wife has made it clear she has a “right to life” as the younger partner, and decides to follow her first flirtation on that voyage. Realizing that she is moving into the danger zone she tearfully implores her husband to protect her from her worst impulses. “I’m so ashamed, deep down inside of me. You’ve got to take care of me. You really do.” She knows that deep down, what is really bothering her is that she is mortal and running away from adulthood and aging.
We in our country have flirted with what is truly scary…authoritarianism and the possible death march of our democracy. these things are real and they are frightening to us all. Faced with an experienced, righteous (but increasingly declining ability to vigorously campaign)candidate in Joe Biden, we worried that America’s self-destruction was inevitable, even with Trump’s bombastic and undemocratic lies and rhetoric. We were afraid of all that dear Joe Biden’s aging portended for us. I think we were all more than a little unsettled watching the inevitable march toward old age that awaits us all. We watched his dignity be stripped away from him in that first debate. We were all worried…about ourselves and Joe.
But the Harris-Walz ticket has given us new hope that democratic decline is not inevitable. With their help, we can march toward a much more mature democracy, and this new hope is attracting all of us like moths to a flame. Old and young, rich and poor, all colors of skin, all religions, we all are comforted and buoyed by the amazing renewal movement. We need not be ashamed, deep down, of our needs and wishes. They are wholesome, right and true. We realize that we can pass the torch to others without losing anything. In fact, we have gained a lot Joe Biden knows this, “way down inside”. We know it, too.
We know that the sad march toward self-destruction with Trump does not have to continue. We don’t have to truly celebrate our American stories alone. We can lift them up…ALL of them. EACH of them. We did once and we will again. To quote the singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, “Why shouldn’t we?”
I grew up in the “Midwest”. Taking care of one another is a common value there and in other places where you find rural life and especially where there are harsh climates or economic conditions.
On the other hand, it was Wisconsin that elected Joseph McCarthy to 2 terms in the Senate. (He died in office.) During that era people in the Midwest and elsewhere turned on their neighbors, shunning them or reporting them for investigation (to J Edgar Hoover).
Why? Because perceived danger trumped being a neighbor.
These are the ideals my parents raised five children to have. These ideals are why my youngest sister has been a nurse for over 30 years, and why I have been a college Math teacher for over 40 years. To serve our fellow citizens. To give others a "lift up". That is why I am so giddy with optimism about the Harris/Walz ticket. The ideals I grew up learning are being celebrated, not denigrated. Thank you, Steven, for putting that optimism into words.
And thanks for your work, David.
The toxic, venal and infantile spew of the MAGA movement is collapsing under its own weight. Let’s keep joyfully pushing it into history…
I’m not the Bible thumper but I admit it has been ten years that I have been praying to stop Trump. I believe hundreds of millions of people across the OUR beautiful USA and the World have been praying, similarly.
At the beginning I believed our Constitution and Democracy would stop Trump. Then surely our Justices Department and laws would stop him. Naively, even after Trump appointed three Supreme Court Justices, I believed they would put Country above Party and abide by their oath that each swore.
The Harris-Walz ticket is the answer to our prayers. It brings me such joy to watch how they are electrifying crowds and huge momentum in such a short time (three weeks and one day upon writing this).
God Bless America, our Troops and every American.
We fight against this tyranny by voting BLUE!
The people of this country are so very tired of the negative attitude of the GOP, and their focus on increasing the wealth of the already wealthy and giant corporations.
Harris and Walz are campaigning on positivity and inclusion and joy. They care about ordinary people like me and my family. The atmosphere of joy and light is so attractive to voters who are ready to lift each other up, and to help those who have been marginalized by the hate and division led by tfg and his adherents. Let’s spread the message of hope for the future as represented by the Democratic ticket. We have no where to go but up!
MAGA is about grievance of something lost…perceived status…or something never achieved which other achieved and is bitter, negative, and resentful. Trump personifies this…never had Daddy’s approval, never fully accepted in society, etc. there is a toxic, malignant group narcissism that goes with MAGA.
In sharp contrast, Harris and Walz are showing hope, kindness, compassion are strengths and provide a positive sense of belonging to see good things done. It is not about amassing power, but empowering all to choose their own course, to find their own happiness. It is not about control and rigid mandates for behavior of White Christian Nationalism, but allowing a live and let live (mind your own business) that generates innovation and diversity of thought that we all benefit from.
Isn't it interesting, that it is the billionaires whining about something lost... while the rest of us celebrate what we have and want to keep.
Great point! Poor them…treated so unfairly…what it shows is a bottomless pit of neediness, insecurity, and screaming for attention.
Or, fear of losing the advantage money buys and wanting to change the rules, now they have theirs. Harris and Walz are such great examples of America. The way to happiness is working, seeing hope and going for it. We have to help the billionaires be happy, despite their inclination toward laziness of wanting laws to protect their wealth.
Isn’t jealousy one of the seven deadly sins? And greed? And hate? Hmm. Might be onto something here.
I’m up early today. This is just what I needed this morning. Like minds and full of compassion for people . I know too many people I’ve had to give up on because they don’t share my view even though I respected them enough to listen where they’re at but it isn’t reciprocated. They’re behind me now because I can no longer see them as like minds. I did engage with a relative and gave her websites who tell you how you can help Harris/Walz. She was surprisingly open for it but admitted she never expresses her feelings with others she knows and I told her this was the most important thing to know exactly, that was what Project 2025 is telling us and that there were experts in explaining also because she admitted it was too long and she knows she wouldn’t understand it. I also told her I’m sending out postcards to swing states. I showed her what I was doing and the exact cost to me in dollars. After a while, I even told her how much I donated and her reply wasn’t “are you crazy” (which is what I expected) but “I need to donate to them too”. I emailed her all the links we talked about and she thanked me. Honestly this was the first positive I’ve seen. Someone brought it up to me after hearing that I just asked a maga to just read it and google a background of someone he approves/trusts to explain it in condensed form. Seriously it was like talking to a distrustful toddler who you had to convince they were better off without wet stinky diapers and going on the potty could achieve that for them instantly.
It did occur to me that I wasn’t and couldn’t be done. Even if I was truly tired of spending all my life away trying to read everything. I write fiction but I also usually read at least six books a week. ( yes my house needs regular vacuum and dusting so I hire it out). The election is cutting into all my free time to write and read to my hearts content. My r/l friends have dwindled away. My family and adult children all are Republican devotees who the minute I correct them with a fact AFTER they make a derogatory lie they say “ You’re always bringing up politics “ and I say “No , you brought up another lie about my candidate and I just simply and honestly told you the truth. That was it and the subject is closed unless you have proof.” As you can see I’m no longer invited to these “friends” get togethers but I realized I had my integrity, my critical thinking and they had nothing in their world to compare so it’s “we’re in, and you’re out” except “I’m no longer obligated to be in, so I’m out”.
I want more like minded people in my real life!
I can’t believe how long this took me to write, I’m better off caffeinated and not so whiny. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for all your efforts. It matters.
I call people like your relative “persuadables.” They are the voters we need to engage & to vote. Some are quiet because they don’t want to be attacked. Some are followers who’ve had doubts. Others felt they didn’t have a “home” or a stake in politics.
Here is a “follower” who reversed course after her prison sentence. She calls the consequences of that day “a scar” she must carry.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/08/11/jan-6-rioter-voting-for-harris/73838553007/
Everyone is persuadable. Each one needs to see the benefits of voting for Harris and BLUE up and down the ballot. As long as they see what’s in it for them. Note that the MAGA suck-up politicians bad mouth everything then assume the benefits of what good governance actually brings. To them. To their electorate. And the other side of the equation, how bad governance and quasi-fascist politicians take away from a flourishing democracy.
I don’t disagree that everyone needs to see the benefits & understand the options. That doesn’t mean they are all open to engage with facts.
For instance, people who folded their politics into their religion & believe anyone who isn’t one of them is doing the work of satan are not persuadable. They also tolerate little disagreement among themselves. Not embracing the delusions or not being open to a violent end for “godless leftists” if it is “god’s will” is not tolerated. Same story for information from outside the rabbit hole.
Maybe at some point they’ll be persuadable. But the ones I know belong to a relatively small subculture which is immune to information outside their existing views. They get their ‘facts’ from specific sources more closely related to Alex Jones than to reality. They still believe Biden sent military tanks into neighborhoods with health officials to conduct involuntary inoculations. The sheep, leftists, satan’s helpers etc. haven’t heard about it because the “deep state” covered it up.
Your experience is reflective for many of us. It is the unwillingness to calmly discuss what we see going on that is most chilling for me. That is how I learn new things, see different perspectives, change or modify ideas. It is hard not to float in a bubble when opposition refuses to engage.
This reminds me of Hillary Clinton's book It Takes A Village which concerns guiding children but can also be applied to adults-working together to help each other. Under trump, one is a lonely little petunia in an onion patch.
Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. --
Henry Ford
Thanks for reprinting Warren’s comments. Out door-knocking yesterday I listened to an 88 year old gentleman describe growing up with nine siblings in two bedrooms with no running water, becoming a teacher and baseball coach, then starting a home supply business and hob-nobbing with the community’s wealthy and politically powerful, raising his family in the house he built 57 years ago (his son and daughter-in-law live next door). He voted for Trump in 2016 because he thought a businessman could best handle the economy but soon realized Trump was only in it for himself. Now the three of them are ardent Democrats and want nothing more than for Harris and Walz to soundly defeat Trump and Vance. I don’t doubt there are a lot more like him in our country.
I love this story. People, not all, but most are changing. They are very tired of the negativity and hatefulness Trump and his posse brings to the table.
"Also emanating from the pro-Trump crowd, sickening comments like this: “That’s what groomers do, too.” What kind of sick, twisted, and toxic mind immediately goes to that when confronted with a simple thing that most parents probably do every day, which is squat down so they can look their kids in the eye when they talk to them. Harris and Walz are drawing these huge crowds at their rallies because Americans are exhausted and sick to death of that garbage. I really hope we're seeing the beginning of the end of the MAGA movement.
Yes, people are tired of garbage.
It is a cheap go-to used by trump and politicians who use this style of politics. DeSantis is another one who uses it to justify his extremist agenda. It is used so often it diminishes the true danger of grooming - but works as a smear campaign because it puts their opponent on the defensive. If it leads to a “I am not a groomer” moment it lives on in video & other attack ads. (Think of Christine O’Donnell’s “I am not a witch” or Nixon’s “I am not a crook.”)
Your response is perfect:
“What kind of sick, twisted, and toxic mind immediately goes to that when confronted with a simple thing that most parents …” teachers, child care workers, (etc) do every day.
And now we have a term for that kind of "groomer" comment--weird. Isn't it weird that someone would see an adult talking to kids as "grooming."
Spent yesterday in NE Ohio canvassing for Sherrod Brown. Republicans too polite to slam the door worked memories of their last trip to a GOP shrine, like Clarance Thomas’ birthplace, into the conversation.
But, some folks shook their heads about the weak character at the head of their party and predicted Sherrod would beat the Republican car dealer who was successfully sued for ripping off his employees.
Her lips to the voters’ ears.
Perfectly written, Steven. We are tired of all their rhetoric & hate. It’s ALL they’ve got. So much so, now EVERY Republican absolutely HATES Democrats. We must run the all out of office in November. We’re at record numbers daily pedophiles being arrested, anger being thrown out for everyone who doesn’t think like they do. It’s been an extremely tiring nearly 10 years of our lives. I for one am ready to move on. Care for our neighbors. Care for our planet. Like John Lennon said, give peace a chance.
I live in the countryside 30 miles south of the Twin Cities. I live in what is, if I judge by the frequency of flags with the blue stripe, Trump Country. But my neighbor across the road comes over to blow out my driveway in the winter after a big storm, when my landlord's plowman is late in coming. He stops by once in awhile just to say hi to my springer spaniel who adores him. If I were in any kind of need, he and his wife would help. I pray that the Republicans have vastly underestimated Americans by thinking they all share their scorched earth/civil war stance and fearful, hateful visions of the future. Even among Trump voters, there must be many who have not forgotten what neighbors do. If nothing else, Kamala and Tim may be reawakening the legions who were raised in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Thank you for this!👍
It has been made clear throughout history that people can destroy the very notion of what it means to be human…or be an unlimited force for good in the world. Each time Americans have been confronted with this powerful choice, we find our way back in the end. I don’t know why, but there seems to be a delight in the power of joy and laughter that draws us like moths to the flame of the promise of America. Perhaps it is because, like all children, we may be curious about horror movies, but in the end, we all want to believe in the goodness of ourselves and fellow citizens…deep down.
There’s a line from “Dodsworth”, a wonderful movie about a wealthy couple grappling with the retirement. They make their first trip to Europe together on a ship where the wife has made it clear she has a “right to life” as the younger partner, and decides to follow her first flirtation on that voyage. Realizing that she is moving into the danger zone she tearfully implores her husband to protect her from her worst impulses. “I’m so ashamed, deep down inside of me. You’ve got to take care of me. You really do.” She knows that deep down, what is really bothering her is that she is mortal and running away from adulthood and aging.
We in our country have flirted with what is truly scary…authoritarianism and the possible death march of our democracy. these things are real and they are frightening to us all. Faced with an experienced, righteous (but increasingly declining ability to vigorously campaign)candidate in Joe Biden, we worried that America’s self-destruction was inevitable, even with Trump’s bombastic and undemocratic lies and rhetoric. We were afraid of all that dear Joe Biden’s aging portended for us. I think we were all more than a little unsettled watching the inevitable march toward old age that awaits us all. We watched his dignity be stripped away from him in that first debate. We were all worried…about ourselves and Joe.
But the Harris-Walz ticket has given us new hope that democratic decline is not inevitable. With their help, we can march toward a much more mature democracy, and this new hope is attracting all of us like moths to a flame. Old and young, rich and poor, all colors of skin, all religions, we all are comforted and buoyed by the amazing renewal movement. We need not be ashamed, deep down, of our needs and wishes. They are wholesome, right and true. We realize that we can pass the torch to others without losing anything. In fact, we have gained a lot Joe Biden knows this, “way down inside”. We know it, too.
We know that the sad march toward self-destruction with Trump does not have to continue. We don’t have to truly celebrate our American stories alone. We can lift them up…ALL of them. EACH of them. We did once and we will again. To quote the singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, “Why shouldn’t we?”
Terrific; thank you!
Thank you, Ira!
Decency is refreshing, and reminds us of who we are as Americans. The pendulum is swinging back!
Today's Substack by Heather Cox Richardson explains the mid-west's history of "taking care of each other" and what their leaders in the past have done to promote this. https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-11-2024?r=6o957&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thanks for flagging it. Well worth everyone’s time.
I grew up in the “Midwest”. Taking care of one another is a common value there and in other places where you find rural life and especially where there are harsh climates or economic conditions.
On the other hand, it was Wisconsin that elected Joseph McCarthy to 2 terms in the Senate. (He died in office.) During that era people in the Midwest and elsewhere turned on their neighbors, shunning them or reporting them for investigation (to J Edgar Hoover).
Why? Because perceived danger trumped being a neighbor.