DJ, I’ve read the book, and lived in Rural areas. Tell me, how does starving and degrading people in prison meet the “needs and concerns of rural culture”? Or how rural culture has at it’s roots racism and a neo-nazi foundation? It doesn’t.

Fact of the matter is that many rural folks have been sucked into such hate machines via the artificial line of thought (promoted by Rush and other such right-wingnuts) that conservative people should all hate anyone that disagrees with the “conservative” viewpoint. The problem is that the culture has shifted from what used to be a reasonable, conservative, small-town mindset to the ultra-right selfish “I want mine and screw the rest of you” mindset that’s been wearing the sheepskin of “conservatism” and dancing about in the media for the past decade. The fact that I know farmers that bitch about taxation and “migrant workers on welfare”, but find no problem with taking subsidy checks from the government, speaks volumes for how hypocritical rural culture has become.

Regardless of who’s voting for this idiot, it’s the mindset that what he’s doing is OK that’s at fault here, not where the people that voted for him live. And I don’t think Daniel specified if those people were rural, suburban or urban in nature. Though I have no doubt that rural votes (along with “conservative” suburban NIMBYs) made up the lions share in this case.