Contributed by: filbert Friday, April 18 2008 @ 08:19 AM CST
Small-town people of modest means and limited education are not fixated on cultural issues. Rather, it is affluent, college-educated people living in cities and suburbs who are most exercised by guns and religion. In contemporary American politics, social issues are the opiate of the elites.
Primarily, I think, because it is much easier for affluent, college-educated city-living types (of which I now am one) to work themselves up into a frenzy. When you decide to go off the rails and start spouting nonsense, the overwhelming reaction in a big town is that most people will ignore you. Those that don’t will probably cheer you on–either because that small minority of people really do agree with you, or because they simply enjoy the entertainment you’re providing.
In a small town (where I once lived), those who get worked up into a frenzy about anything are quickly brought back to reality by their less excitable friends and neighbors. That’s how small towns work.
Small-town, working-class people are more likely than their cosmopolitan counterparts, not less, to say they trust the government to do what’s right.
Possibly because small-town people have a closer connection to their local government. Almost everyone in a small town knows the mayor, the police chief, or one or more of their city council members. If you’ve got a beef, you can go talk to somebody who can do something about it–just go down to the downtown diner, the bowling alley, or at the local watering hole in the evening (which is the same establishment in some towns). But you want to be careful doing that, lest you get the reputation as the town crank/crackpot/complainer. You can get that reputation in a bigger town, too, but it takes a LOT more work and you have to piss off a LOT more people.
Small-town, working-class voters were also less likely to connect religion and politics.
I think that’s because, paradoxically, because religion is so much closer and more relevant to the daily life of a small-town resident. Everybody knows who goes to which church–who goes weekly and who just shows up for Christmas. There’s a lot of the “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” attitude in small-town religion. People in small towns realize, I think, that religion’s greatest benefit is in providing a framework where people can self-moderate their own behavior. Not that a small-town person would put it that way, of course. They’d probably say “you gotta know what’s right and what’s wrong” and leave it at that.
Overall, the great strength of the small town vs. the big city is, I think, that you can’t hide when you do something bad (or stupid). There is no anonymity. If you screw up, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY will know it, and henceforth treat you accordingly. This keeps most folks on the straight and narrow. You also can’t hide if you’re hurting, and there will always be someone in a small town who’ll pitch in and do what’s right. There’s a sense of comfort from living in a small community that is incredibly difficult to recreate in a larger city.
Hat tip: Instapundit[*4]
UPDATE: Don’tcha just hate it when you post an article and forget to provide all of the applicable links? I know I do . . .