The Thing That Mystifies Me About Oklahoma

OK, as a girl born and raised in Los Angeles County, CA, I must admit that when the Air Force decided to send us to Oklahoma after four years in Germany, I was unhappy.  I had all the usual stereotypes firmly in mind, and some of them are worse if you grew up in California, where "Okie" was often synonymous with "poor and backward."
After being here awhile, I realized that people here are not backward.  They are very intelligent about this harsh land that they have been trying to tame for the last 100+ years.  They are more astute observers of weather than anyone I have ever seen.  The true pioneer spirit lives on here, also.  Life can be tough, none know it better, and therefore, you take care of your neighbors when they need you because tomorrow you might need their help.  The arts flourish in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa.  Everywhere you go here you find people who are involved in music or in making other kinds of art.  Yes, there are the redneck stereotypical people too, but fewer than you would expect.  And even those folks will help a neighbor or a stranger in need.
This is what mystifies me about the politics currently in this state.  Here are people who see a need and set about to fill it.  They hear about a natural disaster, or a tragedy somewhere else, and they pray, and they send money, and often they go themselves and help feed people.  Yet, the politicians they elect are most often the worst sort of  cynical tea party curmudgeons you could ever hope to find. 
Look at the voting on aid for victims of Sandy.  It would greatly surprise me if there were not at least one group of Baptist men from Oklahoma who took their mobile kitchens out and fed people in that area.  I would be astounded if folks here didn't reach out through their churches, and as individuals to send what they could to help.  It's the way folks are here.  (Look at the local response to the Murrah Bombing in 1995.  The "Oklahoma Standard" was all about the way the greater community called and asked "What do you need?"  and set about providing it.)  Yet, our Congressional delegation, when asked to support funding for relief for the victims of a major storm, refused.  How many times has Oklahoma had to ask for aid?  Come on, folks, be consistent.  Let some of the tax dollars you'll be paying anyway go toward something you would fund on your own as well.  Help your neighbors.  You have needed their help many times in the past, and you will again. 
From the tone of the political rhetoric spewed by the delegation from Oklahoma, you would expect that people here are angry and unfriendly.  It isn't so.  They are kind, polite, friendly, the sort of people who, even in a big city, know the names of the people who wait on them regularly in local businesses, and ask after their families.  The kind of folks who will stop to help a stranger change a tire.
This is a place where, even though it is a large metropolitan area, I can't go to the store without seeing a person who comes into the library where I work.  My church is 10 miles away, in Oklahoma City, and still, I see people from church in the library.  (And Episcopalians are certainly in the minority here.)
I just can't reconcile the tenor of the politics here with the behavior of the majority of the people.