A Big Election with Small-Town Values
The Republican National Convention took advantage of Sarah Palin's six-year stint as mayor of Wasilla, a town with a population of 6,700, by inflecting John McCain's candidacy with a message of "small-town values." The Daily Show had a field day with this. Daily Show correspondents scoured the convention asking the attendees to explain "small-town values." While everyone they asked felt a strong connection with "small-town values," no one could explain what "small-town values" were.
This might lead some to make the erroneous assumption that "small-town values" is merely an empty term. But "small-town values" do exist. I live in a town of less than 15k residents and feel I might be able to offer some insight into the term.
People who live in small towns value a strange, almost contradictory mix of autonomy and community. Think of how most towns formed. Wherever frontiersmen frequently crossed each other's path--usually due to a well-worn forgiving terrain--people inevitably set up trading posts. Especially where the trading posts included alcohol and gambling (and with time, prostitution), these "crossroads" became camps. As the opportunities for business and farming supplies grew, the camps attracted not just lone men, but also families, who required places of worship. These fiercely autonomous people developed a sense of community by watching each other's children and grandchildren grow. But more importantly, that community congealed in an irreversible way by coming together to overcome tragedies: conflicts with a warring tribe, a predatory animal, disease, a natural disaster, orphaned children, etc. Once these autonomous people saw each other as the sole means for overcoming tragedy, small-town values started to form.
As originally the sole site where both men and women congregated, the church not only consolidated the small town's values into a (sometimes false) sense that they're Christian values, but it also directed relief efforts in times of need. Even today, townies take pride in church volunteer work. Church volunteer work is the essence of a small town's sense of community.
In fact, this is part of the conflict between small-town values and "liberal" governmental programs. To take the town's ability to resolve social problems away from the church, is to take away the town's sense of community.
This sense of coming together to hear the community's problems (people's "dirty laundry") and to solve those problems as a community is the only thing that ties these otherwise fiercely autonomous people together. This is why the small-town community works together to keep the government out of private lives. (Sometimes this means an implicit sanctioning of corruption.) Privacy from the government, gossip in the church. Those are two small-town values that are historically necessary for the small-town community to survive.
"Small-town values" in the local government may mean corruption, but it also means the sheriff can try to resolve broken laws without arresting anyone, or by arresting people without booking them. A local government with "small-town values" often signifies a reluctant government.
At other times, "small-town values" may mean a law doesn't need to have been broken for the sheriff to arrest someone. In other words, the sheriff may be a civil servant, but his allegiance isn't principally to the government. He acts first and foremost in the best interest of the community. A government with "small-town values" is sometimes a government not bound by law.
As I said, I live in a small town, and yes, I'm a fan of small-town values. But they don't work for the White House. A White House administration with small-town values is likely a good-hearted one. But it also will be a reluctant one that will cut taxes and social programs, as if the church community could solve it all. And more importantly, a White House administration with small-town values is also a corrupt government that will ignore laws and violate rights--more than likely in the name of some abstract, poorly thought out sense of common good.
In fact, I think a White House administration with small-town values is in office right now, and look how well it's done by us.
Small-town values need to stay in small towns.
This might lead some to make the erroneous assumption that "small-town values" is merely an empty term. But "small-town values" do exist. I live in a town of less than 15k residents and feel I might be able to offer some insight into the term.
People who live in small towns value a strange, almost contradictory mix of autonomy and community. Think of how most towns formed. Wherever frontiersmen frequently crossed each other's path--usually due to a well-worn forgiving terrain--people inevitably set up trading posts. Especially where the trading posts included alcohol and gambling (and with time, prostitution), these "crossroads" became camps. As the opportunities for business and farming supplies grew, the camps attracted not just lone men, but also families, who required places of worship. These fiercely autonomous people developed a sense of community by watching each other's children and grandchildren grow. But more importantly, that community congealed in an irreversible way by coming together to overcome tragedies: conflicts with a warring tribe, a predatory animal, disease, a natural disaster, orphaned children, etc. Once these autonomous people saw each other as the sole means for overcoming tragedy, small-town values started to form.
As originally the sole site where both men and women congregated, the church not only consolidated the small town's values into a (sometimes false) sense that they're Christian values, but it also directed relief efforts in times of need. Even today, townies take pride in church volunteer work. Church volunteer work is the essence of a small town's sense of community.
In fact, this is part of the conflict between small-town values and "liberal" governmental programs. To take the town's ability to resolve social problems away from the church, is to take away the town's sense of community.
This sense of coming together to hear the community's problems (people's "dirty laundry") and to solve those problems as a community is the only thing that ties these otherwise fiercely autonomous people together. This is why the small-town community works together to keep the government out of private lives. (Sometimes this means an implicit sanctioning of corruption.) Privacy from the government, gossip in the church. Those are two small-town values that are historically necessary for the small-town community to survive.
"Small-town values" in the local government may mean corruption, but it also means the sheriff can try to resolve broken laws without arresting anyone, or by arresting people without booking them. A local government with "small-town values" often signifies a reluctant government.
At other times, "small-town values" may mean a law doesn't need to have been broken for the sheriff to arrest someone. In other words, the sheriff may be a civil servant, but his allegiance isn't principally to the government. He acts first and foremost in the best interest of the community. A government with "small-town values" is sometimes a government not bound by law.
As I said, I live in a small town, and yes, I'm a fan of small-town values. But they don't work for the White House. A White House administration with small-town values is likely a good-hearted one. But it also will be a reluctant one that will cut taxes and social programs, as if the church community could solve it all. And more importantly, a White House administration with small-town values is also a corrupt government that will ignore laws and violate rights--more than likely in the name of some abstract, poorly thought out sense of common good.
In fact, I think a White House administration with small-town values is in office right now, and look how well it's done by us.
Small-town values need to stay in small towns.
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