Is rural America the "real" America?

That is what is suggested by one of the folks interviewed during Damien Cave and Todd Heisler's journey up I-35 from Laredo, Texas, to Duluth, Minnesota.  That series of stories, vignettes, biographies has appeared in the New York Times over recent weeks.  Here's the quote from Ben Bodom, age 57, who lives in Minneapolis and works for General Mills as an information technology specialist.  Bodom came to Wisconsin from Ghana as a high school exchange student and apparently stayed.  Here's the quote:

When you go to the rural areas, that’s when you understand what America is. The fact of the matter is that for them, everybody counts.

Interesting.  I doubt that many native born citizens of the United States would agree that everyone counts--indeed, those who surely count least are those are in rural areas.