This is a very good essay by Mr. McCann, but he's woefully late to have reached this realization.
Take a few minutes and read my own post, put up at TOS August 10, 2012 -- ten years ago (and I had been posting similarly there for a number of years previous):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2916861/posts?page=16#16
I noticed this when I moved West in the 70s. Growing up 50 miles from DC in a rural area, government was generally seen as the bringer of jobs, the letter of contracts, and a benevolent rich uncle.
Out west, it was different. Here, government is the ravening wolf come to take another animal from the herd, always with its hand out, or proferring yet another nonsensical regulation that simply causes problems, more problems than it ever solves, because it was written by people who know neither the land, the life, nor what you are doing (or what they are doing). A degree in polySci does not make you an engineer, a scientist, or even a farmer, as Bloomberg so aptly demonstrated in his corn planting speech. It does, however make for sanctimonious and condescending people who don't even know enough to ask questions but think they know it all, and, in their hubris, have a right to regulate it.
While those types of folks don't have any specific geographical location, more commonly the letter type are found in urban areas, University towns, and anywhere that the majority of jobs are tied to government largess, while the former type is commonly found in areas where extractive industries like mining, oil and gas, or agriculture prevail.
Yes, I, too have seen this coming, hence the one time joke (1970s) we made about taking everything from the Bay of Campeche to Hudson's Bay, from the Eastern (Appalachian) Continental Divide to the crest of the Sierras, calling it America, and letting the rest find a new name.
