los swingers. wtf.

Is this how Europe views the United States? What does it mean that this article appears in Spain's main newspaper the weekend before a US presidential election?

The article starts with the lines (translated by me):

They share their love for guns, rodeos, barbeques, and big familias. They form part of Middle America (traditional/conservative America). They don't seem like Middle America--they are Middle America. A true reflection of the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Maybe the only diference--who knows--between these good patriots and the Alaskan governor is the passion that they express for the exchange of couples.

(El original dice: "Comparten su entusiasmo por las armas, los rodeos, las barbacoas y las familias numerosas. Forman parte de la misma América profunda. No se parecen a ella. Son como ella. Un fiel reflejo de la candidata republicana a la vicepresidencia de Estados Unidos, Sarah Palin. Quizá la única diferencia -quién sabe- entre estos buenos patriotas y la gobernadora de Alaska sea la pasión que derrochan por el intercambio de parejas.")

THAT'S RIGHT. The newspaper El País is (a) saying that "swinging" is a popular, fairly widespread thing to do in the United States, and (b) its popularity is found mainly in the conservastive, Middle American sector of the population. The article gets a lot of its info from this article printed last year in Newsweek by Gretel Kovach.