Different Than My Small-Town Values

Cross-posted on OpenLeft.com

I was born and raised in Nebraska, and my wife grew up on a farm her brother and father still live on. It's four miles away from Westboro, MO, a town whose population has sunk below 200 many years ago. Before being pulled to the Washington, D.C. area because of my work a few years back, my wife and I had never lived in a town over the size of 200,000, and we're still most at home when hanging out with the family and friends back home at small-town cafes and restaurants that were favorite haunts as we were growing up. My brother is a Methodist minister serving a church in Lincoln now, but I miss the days when we could drive out to visit him in churches in places like Mullen, North Platte and Broken Bow, Nebraska.

I go through all this biographical background as a way of getting to this point: while I appreciated Sarah Palin's tribute to small-town values at one point in her speech, the values she exhibited in the rest of the speech were not the ones I recognized from the small towns I know. Her sarcasm, even downright nastiness at times, is not representative of the people I grew up with and still love.

My wife, although she loves her small-town roots as I do, always reminds me not to romanticize small-town America. It is true, people sometimes gossip too much about each other there, and I've known some cruel and close-minded folks who live in small towns, just like there are cruel and close-minded folks everywhere you go. But I grew up in a family, church, and community where we were taught to look out for each other, to be kind to one another, to help out the families in our community who were down on their luck. The Sarah Palin I saw last night had a mean streak a mile wide. If me or my brothers and sisters would have been as sarcastic and demeaning to someone as Sarah Palin was last night, my mom would have sent us to our room. I know that Palin was just trying to be funny when she compared herself to a pit bull, but she was just about as nasty as one, and in the dog-loving families I know from small-town America, people generally prefer dogs that will play well with kids and neighbors. And the community organizers that Palin made so much fun of the folks who organized the potluck suppers at church and the Lions Club charities, the ones who really made those small towns go.

Many of my family and friends in small-town America are Republicans, but they're generally not this kind of mean Republican. The modern Republican party likes to call itself the party of Reagan, and Reagan did remind me of a lot of those small-town folks I know and liked- I disagreed with their politics, but they had a friendliness and warmth that I appreciated. Palin and the modern Republican party reminds me a lot more of Nixon, with that dark, resentful streak, more likely to stick a knife in their neighbor's back than give them a helping hand.

I feel like this election is coming down to a choice between candidates who wants to lift the country up and have them look to the future with hope and optimism, and a party that wants to drag us back to the resentments and fears of the past.

The Sarah Palin of last night, who claims to be the ultimate representative of small-town America, is anything but, because the small-town folks I know actually look out for each other.

Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Sarah Palin's speech

Comments

[bannorhill]

You talk about her "mean streak" but fail to talk about the other small town values she shows. Values like telling the truth, keeping the government off our backs, and stand up and take care of yourself. Her speech was not mean it was truthful.

Mean is Internet blogs with fake photo shopped photos. Mean is attacking her family with lies and slander. These started a few minutes after she was announced as the VP candidate. Palin did not start the slanderous campaign. The left started it before the ink was dry about her nomination.

[ToonMoene]

Perhaps I can add to this insight from the outside (pun intended).

In '86 and '96 I made a coast-to-coast trip on my bicycle (a 6 week journey). At first I admired fly-over country mostly because of being delivered from the East Coast heavy traffic states, but after a few days it dawned onto me that the people were friendly and helpful - in spite of the fact that most of them couldn't believe that a guy from the Netherlands considered biking across the US a "vacation".

I tried to avoid talking about politics, but, frankly, most people were quite open about the fact that someone from Europe would question their guns and their (five) cars ... often they started these discussions themselves.

[unitron]

"Different Than My Small-Town Values"

Just in case there are any impressionable youngsters reading, when things differ, they differ *from* each other.

[Nofuzzydreams]

Give me a break!! Obama went on a blistering attack of McCian during his acceptance speech. Check it out!! Palin's criticisms were all fair and square - she did not go after Rezko, Ayers or Wright. She actually rebutted the criticism of her by holding a mirror to Obama on experience. Blogs on this post were downright nasty about she not having experience. She answered them fair and square.

[ewoman]

Hello Mike - I envy you for your memories. Palin reminded me of all the ugly moments I've experienced in my small town experiences. She, in my opinion, is the dark side of small town America.

[vidivici]

So true! The flip side of small town values, in my experience ( born in Leadville, Co) is - Small Town America, where EVERYONE is all up in your sh@t. They know everything about you, your family, your friends, your work associates, etc, etc, etc. Not a good place to make enemies and harbor secrets. Can you say "Peyton Place"? Can't wait to see the fireworks : )
re-formed repub
ENOUGH!
Obama/Biden 08

[RepublicanForObama]

Enjoyed your article.
MSNBC showed a Regean speech today where he said that the difference between the two parties is that the Democratic Party represents division and fear and the Republican party represents hope and change.
The Republican party is now the party of division, fear, and insults. The Democratic party is the party of hope, change, and respect.
I am a Republican who will never vote for the finger in your face Pit Bull with lipstick.
I want HOPE not MEAN!
Obama/Biden 2008

[ekena9]

I absolutely agree! I was raised in a small city (less 80, 000) populated by folks with a similar background as mine: military family upbringing, parents from out of state or abroad. In my case, my parents were from a small Pacific island. I am the first person in my family born in the USA. I am proud and honored to live in America. Strange thing is: Sarah Palin's one-dimensional, hate-filled America is vastly different than mine. We have a clear choice of following the same failed playbook the RNC has to offer or the forward thinking, problem-solving approach of the Dems. (BTW, and I'm an Independent and I'll be voting wisely.)

[avocado]

thanks; unfortunately, there is a mean streak running down the back of the republican leadership, whether in government or media (think Limbaugh, Delay, Gingrich, Cheney, etc.). I for one am surprised, and continually disappointed, that the progressive opposition has not developed a "narrative" around this. Bush called the left "angry" (yes, I am angry, very angry!), as a way of labeling and diminishing; progressives are not so good at this. It may take a real crisis (ala Great Depression) to wake the populace up....

[JM09]

Mike, thank you for your blog. I know the kinds of small towns you are talking about. my mother grew up on a small dairy farm in NE PA and my dad grew up in a small town thirty miles away from there. We still have family and friends in those small towns and I can't imagine any of them, even if they have voted Republican all their lives (which i suspect some of them have) ,supporting the viciousness displayed by Sarah Palin. Keep reminding the world that there are good people out there.

[Indubio]

Palin's attitude and language are characteristic of a right wing authoritarian and they fit in well with the GOP. The only question for me is whether Palin is a Stepford Wife cupie type doll who knows how to read a TelePrompTer or actually understands and believes what she reads. I 'll withhold judgement until she gets to face the media without cue cards and if she can respond to serious questions without reverting to Karl Rover's talking points.

[robbor]

in private, under calm circumstances Mrs. Palin may be a fine person but having been thrust into the swift moving stream of national politics 2 weeks ago i'm afraid she may not have the fortitude to resist the paws of the GOP and the glare of the press lights. under conditions such as this she may become that pit bull with lip stick

[11907281]

I grew up in a big city, then the suburbs, then back to the big city ... I don't feel this makes my opinion any less valid because I lived in a populated area, I actually learned more about many different cultures and countries because of this. Why are these so called "small town values" more important or different than anyone else?

[jcsophie]

You can't really be serious! I also grew up in a small town (pop. 2500). How do you know that she isn't one of those small town people that would give you the shirt off their back? I would bet that she was one of the ladies organizing the potlucks that you refered to. Her speech was well delivered and a response to five days of constant unjustified attacks on her and her family......tabloid journalism, unproven and similar to the small town gossip that we all, as small town people have endured before. If she had gotten up and sounded any different than she did, we would be hearing that she was soft and lacked the confidence and leadership befitting a vice presidential candidate. She proved last night that she can take on the good ole boy network with poise and even a little bit of humor. I did not agree, however, with the way she made fun of "community service". Even though she was trying to make an attempt to defend her credentials as a governor, it could have been delivered better. Community servants are the backbone to any successful community. Anyway, the bottom line is that people are a little scared of a woman that tells it like it is and isn't afraid to defend herself and her family.

[northof60]

Thank you! I was shocked by her mean streak. There is something very chilling about her hate-filled smirks.

[vickris]

That smirk! Very Dick Cheney like. And the way she's always jutting her jaw out - just like a school yard bully. Pay attention to her facial expressions! Mean girl.

[Enid]

Feels so good, real good too be around like thinking minds and roots.