You were born on a farm that your great, great, great grandpa worked. About 20 miles away sits the small town where you went to grade school, get gas, groceries, and go to church. You can milk a cow, ring a chicken’s neck and cut the bacon off the pig you raised. You hunt and fish and you respect….and are thankful for the animals that you take. You detest being dependent and would never accept a handout and you always take care of your own. You know everyone around and whenever a farmer rolls a tractor on top of himself the whole area mourns together. The nearest big city is 200 miles away but you get their local news. It’s an endless parade of videos of black and Hispanics robbing stores or shooting each other. Are you gonna vote for Bernie Sanders?
There’s that, too. In conservative parts of the country, a huge value is placed on two seemingly contradictory things: self-reliance and reliance on the community. They can’t see government aid as community help because it doesn’t look like the community help they rely on to rebuild a burnt barn or take care of a family that lost its provider in a tractor accident.
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