Even though I live in the suburbs, I hang around with country folks because I train dogs and horses. Like they say, "a country boy can survive." They are resourceful, resilient, and stubborn. And I doubt the author has ever met one, since odds are he's living in a big city. He needs to get out more.
Plus, of course, the usual difficulties in translation.
Your comments in this thread are right on. I live in the Shenandoah Valley and the people I meet have those qualities you listed plus creativity (heck welders and truck drivers out here are more creative than most folks in the city).
They also have a keen sense of commerce and productivity, they make money by either making a tangible product, fixing something or making other people more productive. Whereas city employees will attend meetings, push paper, and ride bicycles to their meaningless jobs.
I can say from my own experience as a doom and gloomer that D&Gers often let emotion guide their reasoning. With this author it is his hatred of cars characterizing them as steel traps. On the way to Strasburg today I passed about 30 corvettes going the other way on Mountain Rd. Those people were not trapped and not driving steel boxes for that matter. The only problem with the road is coming around a curve at 50mph (limit 55) and coming up on a bicyclist from the city.
“A county boy can survive!!”