Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Originally posted by: Dari
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
The question was asked - what do "they" want. Well, from my experience living in small town America(only recently moved to a metro type area). They just want to be left the F@#$ alone. In my hometown that seems to be the sentiment and the same for the town I graduated from(both around 2K people). The second has an ILLEGAL immigration problem and also now a drug problem but the people there would rather the Feds do their job at the border instead of shutting down the town every once in a while with their DEA or ICE vehicles. Doesn't happen often but they seem to think the problem should be taken care of earlier so they wouldn't have the Feds on their doorstep.
small-towns are not statelets. They are afar more vulnerable to the larger world than you imply in your post. Hence, I highly doubt they want to be left alone. What they want is to stop their small town from being deserted and abandoned, turning into a ghost town. When the younger generation leaves, what's left of them? Little to nothing. So they want to be re-invented and that means jobs.
:roll: no where did I suggest they wanted to be statelets. However, from what I've seen is they want the FED to leave them alone as they believe in a more local governance. That is NOT to say they think they are their own "statelet".
See, here's the problem with your view of it....they don't want to be left alone. They want to be made to feel that they are being left alone all the while, getting every penny that they can from the fed.
I grew up in a small PA towns that one of the pundits mentioned on Meet The Press this Sunday (Uniontown & Connelsville) and my family still lives there. I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is exactly what Barack and SteveO described.
When I was living there, it was a decent small town built around mining and within a reasonable drive to Pittsburgh so you had steel mill workers there also. It was slowly decaying all through my youth. The steel mill jobs slowly whittled away into oblivion. The mines dried up with the discovery that coal isn't really the cleanest fuel to burn to produce energy leaving abandoned strip mines being ignored. There was a Volkswagon plant about 15 miles away that closed up and moved the jobs out of the area.
Slowly the economy transitioned from a manufacturing/mining industry stronghold to a service industry survival-type economy. Restaurants would open and close as people tried their very best to make a living. Bars were always an option. Everyone drank. There really wasn't much else to do.
Then, almost as if choreographed, Wal-Mart moved in like they do in most regions. The populous was ecstatic. This meant that there would be jobs coming and people would have healthcare again. Sadly, Wal-Mart was something to be looking forward to.
Just about everyone went to a church of some kind. Sure they believed (or thought that they believed) in a god of some sort. But when they "spoke" to their god, it almost always was in response to a crisis. Whether it was a health issue or a job issue didn't matter. It was almost exclusively to ask for something instead of just to praise.
Guns were rampant (in a non-violent hunting sense) and just about everyone had one or at the very least had shot one at one time. Hunting was/is a way of life. The first day of deer season is so big that it is a school holiday and everyone gets the day off (Monday after Thanksgiving). The local paper still posts pictures sent in by hunters of the bucks that they were able to bag throughout the two week season.
Black/white racism is slowly disappearing. Blacks and whites realize that they need each other and while tension still exists, it is seen as a necessary evil at worst. Sure the older generations still espouse views that make their kids cringe, but it is usually dismissed with an appeasing nod and forgotten by most. But, with a slow migration of Hispanics to the area, now that is something both groups can agree is a problem. They are willing to do the few jobs that have always been there for the truly desperate and that isn't right and should have a stop put to it.
This is where your views differ greatly from mine. Sure they would like to be self sufficient. But they all know that that isn't something that is even possible let alone likely. They crave federal dollars. Highway funding keeps those that are able to work on road crews busy during the warmer months. Funding for housing is necessary for a good bit of the population as evidenced by the multiple housing projects located within such a small town. Welfare, food stamps and medicaid are all utilized and no one there would tell you that they are not wanted because they are being issued by the fed.
What is the solution? For me, it was to move away, hone my skills and make a life for me elsewhere. For most, they are unable to do that and what happens is they end up becoming bitter and bitching and moaning all the while, they get older, less likely to be able to get out, get further and further from the real solution and become more and more apathetic.