"It's a dark place, dangerous, where freedom is under attack by a tyrannical government, few officials can be trusted and clans of neighbors might someday have to band together to protect one another. It's a country where the most basic beliefs — in faith, family, liberty — are threatened."
That's a line from a recent story by Associated Press reporter Tim Sullivan. In his article, Sullivan takes a close look at a small Wisconsin town — how their beliefs are shaped, and what they want from the government.
"I wanted to look at America through the eyes of have conservative Republicans, not militia types, not extremists," Sullivan told KMOX. "But people to the right of the mainstream. Because there are a lot of them, and they see this America that I just don't see."
Sullivan said he was surprised by what he found from the people in the rural Wisconsin town — and said he found their vision of the world "dark" and "apocalyptic."
"At the same time, these people are really complicated. I mean, it's easy to kind of think about people like this and say, 'Oh, it's, you know, the lunatic in the viking helmet on January 6th in the US Senate,' but they're not like that," he said. "They have some views that are pretty out there. But they're complicated people as well."
Sullivan shared some excerpts from interviews with KMOX, and talked more about how he came to understand the rural conservative voters with whom he'd previously been so unfamiliar. Listen to his interview with KMOX and read his full story here.
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