America
across a 19-state American Heart- land region, adjusted for the cost of living, are above the national average.
Another study found that of the 10
areas with the highest cost-adjusted incomes, eight are in the Heartland. In contrast, those with the lowest adjusted incomes were entirely on the coasts. Among the 185 U.S. metro areas
with at least 250,000 people, cost-of- living-adjusted salaries are highest in Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the Hunting- ton-Ashland area, which spans the tristate area in West Virginia, Ken- tucky, and Ohio. All 10 of the highest average sal-
ary metros are small and mid-size markets — none has more than 1 mil- lion people. Despite media accounts that young
people do not want to start families or own homes, most surveys show that the vast majority of Americans in their 30s want to replicate these foun- dations of middle-class life. The famous New Yorker maga-
zine cover showing much of civiliza- tion ending at the Hudson River, save for Chicago, Washington, D.C., and the West Coast, had more than a grain of truth for much of the 20th century. The term “flyover country” was
not just a snobbish put-down but a reality, as a handful of core cities — New York, Chicago, Los Ange- les, and San Francisco — exerted oversized influence over America’s culture, politics, and economy, with rural communities and smaller cities playing a relatively marginal role in
the national drama. The early decades of the 21st
century have altered America’s geo- graphic reality. Moribund small cit- ies have come back to life. Two decades ago, downtown
Fargo, North Dakota, was dull and somewhat derelict. Now, it boasts loft apartments, a
fine boutique hotel, and a panoply of cultural attractions, including art studios and dance venues. For many, there’s a “back to
roots” movement to return home or to someplace that seems less anonymous. Millennials, one commentator
suggests, may be more “socially con- scious,” but they do not necessarily favor the ideal top-down structure embraced by earlier generations; they prefer smaller units of gover- nance to larger ones. A recent National Journal poll
found that less than one-third of millennials favor federal solutions over local ones. They are far less trusting of major institutions than their Gen X predecessors.
GLOBALIZED HEARTLAND Wandering around a park in down- town Omaha on a Sunday, you can find diversity no less present than in Los Angeles or New York. Mariana Macedo, who moved from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Knoxville, Tennessee, owns two Don Gallo res- taurants. A decade ago, she had con- sidered moving to the San Francisco area but decided to start her business in Knoxville in part because of tradi- tional Southern values, which put a premium on hospitality.
“We have to remember that people
in the South are very nice to you, they wave hello when you pass by, they have that style, a lot has to do with the fact that we live in the Bible Belt, so that’s why people are very polite, and very family oriented.” In Nashville, the capital of country
music, the lyric poetry of small-town America is being reshaped by Latino influences, themselves with strong rural roots, including Salvador-born Angie K. As recently as 1990, barely 2% of
the Nashville population was foreign- born, a percentage that increased six- fold in the next 15 years. By the year 2040, one in three Nashville residents will be Latino. Inevitably, these trends will also
reshape our politics, as they have in the past.
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have relied upon rural and small-town voters as their base and are now trying to capitalize on their growth. But Republicans aren’t assured of benefiting from the rise of small towns and cities. As they add more Democrat voters from big cities to their commu- nities, they may become more centrist in their politics and social views, par- ticularly around environmental issues because access to nature is part of the hinterland’s appeal. The more liberal viewpoints will
mingle and collide with the traditional values of family, religion, and thrift, creating a new small-town mindset as part of a constantly evolving politi- cal and economic landscape in the U.S., making these once-dismissed places incubators of the American future. — Real Clear Politics
“We have to remember that people in the South are very nice to you, they wave hello when you pass by, they have that style, a lot has to do with the fact that we live in the Bible Belt, so that’s why
people are very polite, and very family oriented.” — Mariana Macedo, Knoxville business owner
8 NEWSMAX | NOVEMBER 2025
INSTAGRAM/DONGALLOMEXICANGRILL
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