I've lived all over, including LA, east coast, south, Chicago, near the border of Mexico (I worked with illegals there even in sweat shops).
Rural America is garden of peace and contentment compared to the urban areas.
Your views are admitedly from a visitor... and there is no way you can compare them equally that way.
Ignore Foxnews & CNN and get to know rural America before condemning it.
Sure, there was open space and generally it was green or pale yellow from the corns, but it was a terrible place for a young mind. I didn't like football or wrestling and I didn't love confederate flags on pick up trucks. The general take was that I was an outsider not to be friends with. Eventually, I made friends but I can still hear the "he is okay, he is like a white [insert minority]" from adults and people at school.
This was in the late 90's and early 2000's before Fox and CNN doubled-down on extreme views. People in rural America hated immigrants just as much then as they do know.
People can be unhappy anywhere, but also people can learn to get along anywhere too... unless there is a riot side your house, or a shooting next door. These are outside your personal influence.
- Reactionary politics were born in rural America, urban America is just catching up these days.
- The value system of rural America is dismissive of nerdy/intellectual pursuits, and so it drives out talent that was already enticed by the opportunities present in cities.
- More broadly there is a kind of pride in being very separate/distinct from the other parts of America, but it seems pretty shallow to me -- the emphasis seems mostly to be on the material trappings of "ruralness" (being a farmer, having a big truck, wearing camo patterns), and not on the values themselves.
- And perhaps rolled up in politics, but I feel the need to call it out because I sense it on display in your comment: An eagerness to play the victim to the rest of America. "It's just those city folks that cause all our problems."