I appreciate your cuteness here, but it belies the flawed unstated major premise in all your arguments here- that city people have no experience with country people. In my experience there is way more cross-pollination than cartoons would have us believe. All of my city friends moved here from small towns or rural areas, as I myself did.
To your other point, I also know 50 Republicans (mostly extended family). My dad and his best friend are the type you describe- ranchers with a love of the environment. The other 48 are openly racist Christian Dominionist Trump voters who like to tell me how much I’ll be burning in hell for being trans. Tell me again how I’m supposed to listen to their fee fees?
The problem is that, as others have stated, their motivations are not what they think they are. My dad says what you said- he hates gun regs because the nearest police officer is an hour away, so he needs his 11 guns. Well, guess what? There hasn’t been a crime within 50 miles of him this year. We leave our keys in the cars and he hasn’t locked his doors in 25 years. So what he says is his reasons aren’t real. What he is deeply afraid of are the Natives that live nearby because my dad, though I love him to death, is a racist. He also happens to just really like guns.
Republicans say they want X, but vote for Y again and again and again. At some point the Democrats will figure this out and stop offering X because it doesn’t work. You are advocating offering 2X because surely that will work.
