There's an asymmetrical perception issue between rural areas and big cities/metros [View all]

Specifically, between the least populated (and often, least in terms of population density) regions/counties/towns, and the large, densely populated, diverse, wealthy, and extremely culturally influential (if not essentially dominant) metro areas like those of New York, DC, Los Angeles/Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area...basically, the East and West Coasts (with places in the interior like Chicago and maybe Denver also approaching that status).

The divide is not just one of cultural perspectives and perceptions of the other culture, it's asymmetrical in the sense that, while most people in America's metropolises (particularly the largest and most cosmopolitan ones) have little (if any) awareness of what life is like "out there" out in "the boonies" (other than crude media stereotypes - very often manufactured by people whom have never even set foot in a rural community (and have no desire to, much less ever live in such a community), rural Americans certainly know at least some of the thought/opinions/perspectives of the "city-slickers" - specifically, those of Hollywood, the mainstream news media, and other figures and institutions who, quite frankly, are ELITE. And rural people see the loudest, most influential voices in the media and the broader culture being almost entirely from large, wealthy, cosmopolitan, metropolitan, and LIBERAL areas (all of which seem to be correlated, certainly from the view of rural America) talk about rural people and their communities like they are authorities and experts on them - in spite of the fact that most of the media pundits are very far removed from "the country" - and deeply resent their snobbery, their lecturing, their acting like they know people they don't know (much less, respect), and all the rest of it.

This, IMHO, is a BIG reason for Clinton's very poor performance in so many rural counties in the US - even counties in which Obama won in both 2008 and 2012. While both big metropolitan and rural/small-town residents have many misconceptions regarding each other, the difference is that rural Americans actually do hear (and see) "big city folks" talk about different subjects (including rural America) - and on a daily basis, at that - while the converse is emphatically not true. Who's "uneducated " again?