I get what you're getting at, but the difference isn't quite that stark among most of the actual population of rural areas, at least today (pre-1930s is another

I get what you're getting at, but the difference isn't quite that stark among most of the actual population of rural areas, at least today (pre-1930s is another story). There are some really off-the-grid rural areas, and those people have quite different views, but that's less than 1% of the U.S. population. The vast majority of the population of rural areas has grid electricity, running tap water, mail delivery, a phone line, a sheriff's department, etc. The federal government's rural-electrification push still has visible results all over the place, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative is present in thousands of communities, subsidized rural mail delivery is almost ubiquitous, most people's kids go to public schools, kids get vaccinated, many farmers receive government subsidies and loan guarantees, many people have FDIC-insured bank deposits, many people live on Social Security, etc.