Why Are Rural Voters So Crazy?

After looking at the county-by-county results for the Ohio primary, I just don't understand why rural areas vote for such jackasses.  If rural areas are as religious as rural folks claim, why the hell to they need to elect a loony theocrat to force people to follow religious doctrines?  Wouldn't rural areas stand as an example for all the hellbound cities, and urban folks would realize their mistakes and repent without Rick Santorum allowing states to ban birth control?  My guess is that religious teachings don't translate into actual practice in rural areas, and folks would like to nudge things along.

I also don't understand the anti-government attitude which is so prevalent.  Seriously, don't rural folks realize that without the tax revenues in cities supporting them, rural life would continue to erode away?  Take Ohio's school funding.  Rural schools are subsidized by the suburban folks paying state taxes.  CAUV makes taxes from farmland minuscule.  And where do they think the money comes from to maintain the state highways?  It isn't from the small number of people living in rural areas.  Besides, why are they so pissed off about taxes?  The rich people live in the cities, and they are they ones who carry the burden of income taxes.

In the current election, we are getting a very clear lesson of how few people actually live outside of metropolitan areas.  Mitt Romney wins the cities and the suburbs, while Rick Santorum wins the rural areas, and yet Romney still wins.  In Ohio, Santorum won 69 counties, while Romney won 19.  Most significantly, Romney won both Warren County and Delaware County, the two fastest growing, and two of the wealthiest counties in the state.  I hate to break it to my neighbors, but we're going to see the same thing in the fall, with Romney winning the rural areas and Obama winning the cities and many of the suburbs.  Those county-by-county maps may be neat to look at, but they ought to be shown by population density instead of area.  While rural folks vote for crazy candidates, they support policies which will hurt them much more than they will help them.