I feel like practically every word you've written could apply just as easily to the western part of Michigan where I live. Same flags waving off expensive trucks, same old white religious men controlling society, same lack of diversity. Same reverence for Trump, a man many of my neighbors would ordinarily be expected to disdain.

Why they worship him instead, when his values are anathema to their own, when his actions are so contrary to their interests, is more than a puzzlement.