Like you, I come from small town, Midwestern America. I spent the first 16 years of my life on a farm, and then moved into a town with a population of less than a thousand. My family was poor--before moving into town, we actually used an outhouse. My parents were decent, hard working people, crippled by their feelings of inferiority.

I chose to go to college and then on to grad school, and have opted for an urban lifestyle my entire adult life. Most of my family remains where we were raised, however, and they overwhelmingly support Trump. So yes, I get it--much of what you say makes sense.

Or at least it would have made sense, through the fifth day of January, 2020. The following morning Trump incited a mob--a mob that he had summoned--and sent them to the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election. For two hours and twelve minutes, while this mob coursed through "the people's house," calling for the death of Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence, Trump rejected entreaties from his own staff as well as family members to call them off. It was nothing less than an attempted coup d'etat, the first in America's 240-year history. And it played out in full view of the entire world.

So please, take it from this rural kid: the fact that a lot of small town Americans believe that we urbanites view them as country bumpkins does not in any way, shape or form justify shredding the United States Constitution. We barely dodged a bullet on January 6th, 2020 ... and anyone (whether your brother or mine) who votes for Trump this fall is casting a ballot to end American democracy.

And there is plenty wrong about that, isn't there?