It's Indiana, and what's more, it's SOUTHERN Indiana. I originally come from Northern Indiana, which is a BIT more like Michigan or Illinois, discounting the fact that I come from about 25 miles from where Dan Quayle is from.
However, Sullivan is very near where my wife comes from (Brazil) and where I had the misfortune to spend six miserable years from the time we got married in '99 until we moved to Michigan in '07.
This does not surprise me in the least. Indiana is one of the most blood-red of all "red states." Once you get outside the major metropolitan areas (South Bend, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, etc.) the more like the South it is...and the further south you go (meaning: south of I-70) it's REALLY like the DEEP South. I lost track of how many Confederate flags I saw as bumper stickers, licence plates and flying outside residences (and Indiana was on the UNION side)!
People tend to almost-robotically vote Republican, even if they don't know who's on the ticket: "my daddy and grand-daddy voted straight Republican, and that's good enough for me, especially to keep them rotten Commie Democrats out of office." Democrats who DO get elected to state/national office do so by being as "GOP-lite" (meaning: DLC) as possible (Evan Bayh, Frank O'Bannon).
The first "Rush Room" in the country was in Mishawaka (about 15 miles west of where I came from).
ANYTHING that is outside the right-wing "norm" is going to be punished somehow (ostracism if you're lucky, violence if you're not), and those who are seen as upholding "traditional Hoosier values" (as Diana Medley would be seen) are going to be given a pass, if not openly applauded.
It sucks, but it's the way it is. I don't regret leaving Hoosierland for a minute.
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