growing up in Phoenix, whenever i think of the midwest i think of the plains and farms. ohio to me is east and oklahoma is part of the midwest.
i, for the life of me, cannot understand why oklahoma is considered the southwest.

Midwest Boundaries
 

Growing up in Denver, I thought the Midwest started where the high plains ended and trees (aside from the occasional riverbank cottonwood or willow) started to grow in profusion. Where everything turns green and humid and you get glowing buzzing bugs, in other words, around Salina, Kansas, I think.

Logically, the Midwest should be the middle of the west; i.e., around Salt Lake City, but we are burdened with the nomenclature of the early 18th century. Northwestern University in Illinois, come on!!

Oklahoma is so flippin' thrown around its not even funny. We are sometimes referred to as Midwestern, Great Plains, Southcentral, and southwestern.

I think the best answer to Oklahoma is that it IS a mix of all. You may not like to hear this but Oklahoma does have cultural identities and ways of life from the Midwest although we are not a Midwestern state. Its really a mix of different regions, you can tell by all the accents also.

I've lived for brief stints in two of the vastly different midwest areas-- Kansas City, MO and Traverse City (Interlochen), MI. By geography alone, these places are in many ways like night and day-- one area is landlocked, one is defined as a "coastal town". The cultural differences are no less striking... one a large metropolis with sprawl and open land that is criss-crossed by freeways, the other a quiet dignified fishing village that serves as a corporate hub for the bay... defined by snow pack in the winter, and beautiful days by the beach or on the dunes in summer.

Yet still in both places, I feel the tiniest tinge of "Midwest" in common-- maybe from some common attitudes among the people. It is one of humbleness and dignity. As a born Southerner, it was kind of easy to see the connection between the two.

It's also kind of ineffective to try and apply a differnt region to either city. Many people try to loop some of Michigan with the east coast b/c of it's heavy industrial attitudes, but in my mind any link of that kind only extends to the eastern half of the LP (Flint would be the terminus, with Detroit being the strongest representative of "eastern flavor"). Same thing with Kansas City in relation to the Southwest or the West, but they just don't apply very well. Midwest is the closest mega-region that can identify both areas. Obviously the sub-regions of Great Lakes and Heartland over-rule.

But there is a rather large "cultural" divide between Missouri and Michigan. The fact that you compared Kansas City (which is far more liberal than the rest of Missouri, save St. Louis) and Traverse City (which is a relatively small rural town) and found that both areas were relatively the same says something.

However, try comparing Traverse City to Poplar Bluff or any other small town in rural Missouri. You'll find a world of difference.''

Missouri outside of its two largest cities has far more in common with Arkansas than it does with Michigan.