What if the NYT’s Roger Cohen traveled through America’s heartland, not France’s heartland, to give us a similarly honest and elegant account of the attitudes and legitimate complaints of Midwesterners? … This is a terrific look at what’s driving people to support the far-right National Rally party in rural France. It’s all the little things adding up to bigger things – and the National Rally filling political voids while trying to hide its true nature. Sound familiar?

But I doubt we could ever get consistent reporting like this about America’s heartland. The coverage would almost inevitably descend into predictable left-right-paradigm reporting designed to keep base read-to-confirm subscribers happy.