I wonder, is it because on the West and East coast you have a greater number of first gen immigrants with values similar to where they came from, or loyalties to where they came from?
Or is it the greater degree of urbanization and influence this has?
Cities make people weird: crowding, public/community property, anonymity, the loss of an identity and feeling of being unique, social/natural disconnects (folks don’t even know where their food comes from), noise/light pollution (cities don’t sleep). It is in cities where people run metal through their nose and dye their hair blue in order to feel unique - or where “science” tells us XX and XY isn’t a girl or a boy. I tend to think it’s the urbanization because you see this everywhere, even in Europe, Asia, etc.
You're on the right track in your last paragraph. Cities are like they always have been through history, magnets and gathering spots for all sorts of criminal minded, mentally ill and perpetual malcontent types to socialize in. People believe that anarchist, discontented, long-haired dope smoking anti American radicals are a recent product of the 1960's when in fact they've been with us way longer than that, at least since the 1890's. When communism and fascism became the in-thing in the early 20th century they glommed right onto those like they were going out of style, particularly the communism. They were a minority, had no platform or standing in government or the media like they do now, so they would have their gatherings at bistros, coffee shops and the like, do street theatre, pass out handbills, put up a soapbox, make speeches on street corners and public parks. Stuff like that. Kinda like the Antifa or SDS of their time but dare didn't go out of line into organized violence.
New York City for example, that place has always been a hotbed of anti-Americanism all the way back to the revolutionary war. That was a Tory town and they were pretty grumped out about Britain losing the war to a bunch of ragtag colonists who couldn't promise the wealth and prestige that being aligned with Britain could deliver. In mid 20th century the place was crawling with radicals and the local police, federal and military authorities kept themselves busy trying to keep an eye on them all. Security was very tight at the Brooklyn Naval yard since someone was always trying to sabotage the ship building all through the 1930's in the runup to WW2. Men in the military weren't respected and were seen as targets during the Depression since they had steady paychecks, they would have money, so it was dangerous since all sorts of means were employed by the NYC citizenry to relieve them of it, from simple scams up to armed robbery and murder. So it wasn't really a great idea to be wandering around there in uniform and alone. Best to be with others who could watch your back. The most common ploy was to zero in on a soldier/sailor and get him very drunk so they could take him out back and strip him of all money and possessions. There were a whole lot of bars to do that at and some bars actively participated in the those robberies and took their cut of the loot.