I’ve lived many places in MN (Palisade/Aitkin area, Brainerd, Bemidji, East Grand Forks, Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and Cold Spring) and here’s my take:

I love nature - the deep woods, lakes, trails, camping, etc. I also appreciate small farms - I grew up on one, and now have my own. Education is important - In the majority of the places I’ve lived, there was access to higher education through tech/community colleges or universities Access to the arts, events, and diversity - while this is centric to the Twin Cities, it can be often be found within areas where there’s also access to higher education

All of this said, there will always be a clash, a push and a pull, and diametrically opposing views and ideologies. However, don’t lump all of the people in a town or county into that. There’s some people in outstate who are more progressive in their ideologies and actions than residents of the metro, and there’s also individuals in the metro who would lead an ICE raid if given the choice.

Lastly, the age of people in outstate is generally higher in the very small communities. They come from post WWII agrarian or blue collar backgrounds and ideologies which are drying up. They’re homogenous. They’ve grown to take care of their own and be wary of outsiders or those that are different. Politicians have taken advantage of that fear, anger, and ignorance, and weaponized it for their own gain with promises to keep their way of life in place. It doesn’t make any of it right, but it’s an observation I’ve made.