Posted on 04/11/2008 6:22:14 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
In San Francisco last week, Senator Barack Obama, Democrat candidate for President, made a certain statement about people who live in small towns in Pennsylvania. He is about to undergo a primary in that state against Senator Hillary Clinton, the other remaining Democrat candidate for President.
Why should a comment made by a candidate in San Francisco about people who live in Pennsylvania be of the slightest interest to the people who live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina? Simple. Almost half of the people here, in the 11th Congressional District of North Carolina, also live in small towns, and have experienced some of the same losses as the folks in the small towns of Pennsylvania.
Depending on the outcomes in Pennsylvania and then in North Carolina, the Democrat primary for President may shortly be over, not mathematically over, but over for all intents and purposes, as my sainted mother used to say. So, these remarks should be considered here, in the mountains of North Carolina.
These are Senator Obama’s words, as posted on Jonathan Martin’s popular blog on politics, Politico on 11 April:
“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
SOME of the jobs have gone from these communities. At worst, factories have been closed, the equipment has been shipped overseas, and the final indignity was to pay old employees to train their replacements, before firing them. But the people hereabout are smarter than to sit and wait for the government to bail them out. Communities have banded together to seek different opportunities in different fields.
The greatest errors in this high-fallutin dismissal of small town folks is in the rest of this arrogant quote. Most people here are not bitter. Bitter is for people who have given up. We have not given up.
No one here “clings” to his religion. Those who hold religion important, believe in their religion and try to live by it. I pity Obama if all he has is a religion he can “cling” to. No one here “clings” to his guns. Most of us grew up with guns. We respect them, know how to use them, and most households and more than a few vehicles contain guns.
Shootings of people are very uncommon in these parts. Perhaps Obama hasn’t read his Robert Heinlein. “An armed society is a polite society.” He probably hasn’t read his Constitution carefully, either. The Supreme Court will shortly issue a decision that will educate him, tell him that the Second Amendment provides a personal right “to keep and bear arms.”
Obama thinks we have antipathy to those who are not like us. There are few greater differences than between the Scots-Irish who came to these mountains and the Cherokee who were here when they arrived. It’s taken some centuries, but we got it sorted out.
We are not “anti-immigrant.” Most of us are immigrants, both recent and centuries ago. We do think, however, that everyone should play by the rules. So, we are against “illegal immigrants.” And we are careful with our words. These are no more “undocumented workers” than a bank robber is an “undocumented borrower.”
Far from being “anti-trade,” we have been in favor of international trade since we produced goods and products that were sold in Europe from these colonies. But we are in favor of fair trade, where the benefits flow both ways. We don’t like to get ripped off in an unfair deal.
We can reach one conclusion from Senator Obama’s remarks. Whatever else he is, or knows in different contexts, when it comes to understanding the people who live in America’s small towns, he is dumb as a box of rocks. But then, what do I know? I just fell off the turnip truck in a small town in North Carolina.
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He is running for the 11th Congressional District of North Carolina.
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John / Billybob
You tell him, CBB!
Obama handed McCain a golden BB. If he does not put right between that racist’s peepers he is an idiot. I knew if Obama got enough rope he would eventually wind up hanging himself with it.
What Barak does not understand about religion, (how could he going to the church he does) is that religion is not about frustration, bitterness, and hate, it is about love and an understanding that there are things greater than ourselves.
making popcorn now!
City slickers have always thought like that about those of us who live rural. And we have always known that it was the dumb city slickers who didn’t know anything. Not only that, you can’t trust them, either, because they’re all a bunch of theives.
And...
Ta da...
I own firearms! Some are even illustrated on my FR homepage.
The Black Man should go check facts on black on black crime, black on white crime, white on black crime, and report back to us Bible-thumpin' gun-totin' whitey folks.
If a man's religion is Islam, it is about "frustration, bitterness, and hate."
I take ‘small town’ verses Big City-EMPTY SUIT Muslin any day... STFU Obama
Good piece, CBB.
Hannity just got through ripping Obama on this in the H&C show.
Bravo!
The condescension of these arrogant and naive socialists is disgusting. Piss on them.
I love small towns! I grew up in a once small town. The smallest town I know has the best people I know and they only number 603.............That's a small town.
I live outside of a small town (in Maine).
I have rocks on my property.
Lots of rocks.
Big rocks, and little rocks.
I don't put them in boxes, generally, but I'll have you know, that not once have ANY of those rocks insulted my religion.
NOT ONCE have ANY of those rocks insulted my gun ownership.
NOT ONCE have ANY of those rocks insulted my intelligence.
NOT ONCE have ANY of those rocks tried to make me feel like they were smarter than me.
I have built walls with those rocks, and let me tell you they do a fine job.
I have filled in holes with those rocks, and they've never complained.
My well is lined with those rocks.
My barn rests on some of those rocks, and has for over 50 years.
On behalf of rocks in rural Maine, and rural America, I demand that you withdraw your comparison, and apologize for your insult of Granite-Americans.
You nailed it!
Here in "Pennsyltucky" fly-over country we still pretty much know right from wrong, honor motherhood and the founding fathers, and know that it is in God and not government that we trust.
And, by the way, we are the only ones allowed to use "Pennsyltucky". Just like a certain ethnicity is the only one "allowed" to use the N-word.
And I’ll cling to them until they pry them out of my cold lifeless fingers!
Excellent!
Although what do I know — I was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. ;-)
Our guns seem to fascinate Barry, have you noticed?
BRAVO!
Molon Labe Barry.
Guns frighten totalitarians. They frighten this one too.
Excellent, just excellent......... and I don’t live in a small town, but I know the greatness of our nation is found in the small towns Obama disdains.
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