These types of narratives are common around here. They’re reinforced by Fox News. And “smear” or not, as Democrats call this one, they often stick. On this one, honestly, I share my conservative friends’ concerns, even if they have their facts wrong. Sure, Joe and Hunter Biden did nothing illegal, and Hunter was not a government official. Meanwhile, President Trump and his family have used the office of the president as an A.T.M., beyond his numerous moral and ethical failings.

But why would a Ukrainian gas company give Hunter Biden millions of dollars for a board seat in an industry he knew nothing about if they weren’t trying to curry favor with his father, the vice president? This is anthropology 101 — generalized reciprocity, where a gift of real value is made, with an expected return gift of uncertain or unspecified value at an undetermined time in the future. That we so easily accept this kind of payola to politicians is part of the reason it’s near-impossible to hold Mr. Trump accountable.

Anyway, fair or not, the Biden smear is certainly portrayed as truth on Fox News’s talk shows. Most of us around here seldom see that network’s news programs, which have been more evenhanded in their recent coverage of the president. When we get up in the morning to go to work, it’s “Fox & Friends” on the air. In the evening, by the time we are done wrangling kids and supper, it’s Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.

And the local culture goes much deeper than Fox News, which doesn’t create the reality of conservatives here so much as reinforce it. To my devout conservative neighbors, liberals are tearing America apart. Mr. Trump is the only conservative with the courage enough to stand up to their way.

They see the hand of God in this, and many truly believe he is the “chosen one.” To them, Democrats are amoral and spiritually empty. Where evangelical Republicans worship God and see Jesus as the only path to him, Democrats have banned Jesus from the public sphere at great cost to society and the potential salvation of millions.

To rural white conservatives, their culture is being rubbed out right before their eyes. Compared with that, Mr. Trump’s sins — Ukraine and all — are trivial, while the Democrats are unrepentant and persist in their wrongdoing.

So, yes, the dismal rural economy, brought on directly by the president’s actions, may prompt independents and some Republicans to vote for a Democrat, because they will see it in their economic interests to do so.