> it's worth pointing out that the urban areas in the South are pretty damn progressive

The urban areas everywhere tend to be pretty progressive. The political and cultural distinctions between any given state's urban and rural areas are a lot more profound than the distinctions to be made based on West Coast, East Coast, South, or Midwest.

I would agree with that, and folks from those areas probably take more grief from their neighbors than what we deal with.

Chapel Hill, NC... Atlanta, GA... Austin, TX... New York City,NY

Yes, are all despised by their rural neighbors. And vice-versa. But the bias is bidirectional: Those in the cities look at the rural folks with just as much contempt and disgust as those folks in the country look at the cities. Perhaps more.

An often overlooked aspect of inter-group conflict: it's often made out to be unidirectional but it rarely is.