Reporters often write about the contrast between coastal elites and the country’s “fly-over” areas, but the difference is more complicated. The dichotomy isn’t necessarily rural versus urban, or low-density versus high-density areas of America, as Tom Maraffa, professor emeritus of geography at Youngstown State University, once told me. The difference is more between the “placed” and “placeless.” In short, people who are rooted in their places versus people who are essentially nomads, like reporters and politicos who flock to Washington and New York not just to make a living but also to form
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