One of the many things that the cosmopolitan class, living in and around Washington, New York or Silicon Valley, continues to misread about the people living outside those areas is this: it is not just fans of Donald Trump who feel alienated by the popular attitudes and assumptions about them.

One key assumption is that these people hate where they live, can’t wait to leave, feel tethered to their hometown’s decline, or have lost hope for a brighter future.

“I don’t hate it here,” Melissa Hays says. She says it so swiftly and reflexively, when asked if she grew up in Steubenville, that she pauses, laughs and apologizes for reacting so bluntly.

“People immediately think, because you live in a town that is flat on its back, that you want to leave and, if you don’t, your lack of mobility is a sign of ignorance or ambition,” Hays says as she tidies up Froehlich’s Casual Corner, the restaurant she manages, after the lunch crowd clears out.

Read the full story here: Love and hate in Ohio