“the heartland,” also known as “flyover country.” People from Massachusetts, California, New York? Not “real Americans.” According to the stereotype, a real American is not a professor, banker, or artist living in New York City or Seattle. Real America is Dixie Chicks and wide open spaces, proud men and hospitable women, farms, trucks, guns, patriotism, building, rebuilding, independence, hot dogs. Real Americans do not live within a day’s drive of the ocean. (Lakes are, however, totally acceptable.)
