When they founded the country, they intended for local communities to live deliberately according to their own values.

To people who come into town and see "rotting of [their] culture", they can just turn around and head back to the exurbs or countryside because we're working on "rotting" it further.

Interesting. If we get a fiscally conservative government that does the right things and the economy does well as it did under Reagan then I think we may see a change in the culture. Unfortunately Reagans policies were abandoned right after he left office and the progressives took over.