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.

They still had control while Reagan was in office. Truth is that the takeover actually happened in '65 after Goldwater's defeat, but Reagan's popular rhetoric just temporarily pushed the agenda farther down the timeline.

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.