> In my view, the best expression of America is somewhere like Iowa--a flat society with intense, local self-governance.

You sound very Jeffersonian, but methinks you're idealizing Iowa — have you ever spent time there?

Anecdata: My dad's family is from Iowa — his people were small-holding farmers and village shopkeepers whose immigrant ancestors had come to Iowa from Germany. My dad and his siblings each left the state as soon as they reached adulthood and never once returned to live. Neither I, nor any of my siblings, nor any of our first cousins have ever lived there, nor have many of our second cousins (although we used to go back regularly to visit relatives). Feel free to conjecture why that might be.