One of the contradictions I find most troubling is that those areas of the country that would call themselves community-oriented, the "traditional" small-town America, tend to be the ones that are also the most controlling and most government hating.

I have farming relatives in the rual Midwest. They depend upon the federal government for a great deal of their resources and well-being, but they also complain the most about how the government is attempting to control them. As you noted, they also believe that their convictions should control everyone else's behavior. Most absurd, though they are the part of the country that interacts least frequently with black and brown people, they retain the most fear and loathing of them.