Most Americans, it seems, can tolerate hearing of the superiority of the small town, as long as they don't have to live in one. You wouldn't know it from listening to country music stations, or to the governor of Alaska, but four out of every five Americans choose not to reside in rural areas.
Maybe if they ventured beyond the city limits more often, those people would not be so inclined to believe everything they hear about the merits of rustic hamlets, which harbor a full complement of social ills.
Not everyone in rural America gets high on fresh air and the smell of new-mown hay. Illicit drugs are nearly as common out there as they are in cities and suburbs.
In 2007, a survey of 8th graders by the Monitoring the Future project at the University of Michigan found that country kids were 26 percent more likely to experiment with drugs than middle-schoolers elsewhere. Overall methamphetamine consumption among adults and teens is more than 50 percent higher in the country.
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Meant to link this some time ago, but here's Steve Chapman pointing out that snobbery can cut all kinds of ways:
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Yup, my cousin's neighbor being a case in point. For over a year my cousing was convinced that his neighbor, who lived next to him just outside of a small town in western PA was running a meth lab. A year later (i.e. last month), he was proven right. Of course, his neighbors were white, so it's not all that bad, I guess. At least, I think that's one of the memes behind the whole "country folk can survive" yarn the Palins of the world like to spin so much.
I never really understood why small towns are considered the "real" America. I get the whole values argument, yadda, yadda, yadda but people LIVE in cities. I have always hated not being considered a "true" American because I'm from Brooklyn & not from Kansas. It's this kind of stuff that contributes to feeling of marginalization among inner city youth. Not in a direct way of course. Kids aren't sitting around talking about whether or not society thinks they are authentic Americans. It's a "trickle down" effect I think i.e. city dwellers aren't real Americans therefore who gives a crap about them. It's why you never hear national politicians talk about rental housing situations even though most people rent & live in cities.
About 10 years ago I was visiting in Angel's Camp, which is a small town up in the "Gold Country" (i.e. the Sierra Foothills). I was commenting to someone about the new subdivisions filled with large houses and wondering where the occupants came from and what supported them. What I was told was that many people moved there believing that they were going to live the good life and most importantly keep their children away from all the big-city gang-and-drug problems. And of course that didn't happen.
While the adults perhaps can drive a long commute to Sacramento or wherever, where would the young people work? Just how many teenagers can that local ranchers hire and burger joints hire? And what do they do as they grow up?
The person I was speaking to explained that it was "east Oakland without the opportunities".
"most people rent & live in cities."
In '05 accoerding to the census bureau there were 73,553,000 owner occupied households, and 33,678,000 renter occupied households. This explains why national politicians don't talk about rental housing situations more.
So where is this message that "city dwellers aren't real Americans" coming from. Not popular culture. How many shows are set in small towns vs. New York and LA? Teenagers aren't listening to republican politicians, they get their messages from popular media, which is all about cities.
Perhaps the anti-urban populism derives its roots from every other type of populism (envy?).
Yes. I'm from a town in SW Nebraska which is so rural it's about 100 miles to the nearest town with more than 10,000 people and a five hour drive to the nearest with more than 100,000. He also could have mentioned high teen pregnancy and drinking rates, fewer options for domestic violence victims, businesses disappearing and infrastructure crumbling as a consequence of rural flight, persistent poverty in some rural areas, etc. That's not to knock rural areas, but
there are very real problems just like anywhere else. There are good things too, just like any place else. Even the most rural schools in Nebraska are excellent for example, but this rural "real America" nonsense the GOP's peddling is a fairy tale.
Just to make it clear to the vast majority of Republicans: Exurbs != rural. Living on an acreage 50 minutes from metro and building your little girl a bunny hutch does not qualify you to speak for rural America, sport.
Illicit drugs are nearly as common out there as they are in cities and suburbs.
Awhile back you asked what was the white equivalent of ghetto. My answer would be, places and cultures where illegal activity is so pervasive that everyone is complicit. Most of rural Appalachia (my home) is like that. It's not that everyone grows, or uses, pot--but everyone knows who does. We're talking a place where no one thinks that having a pound of pot around is particularly noteworthy.
I didn't know illegal drugs were anywhere near as common in the city as they are in the country.
Also from rural Nebraska, albeit denser Eastern Nebraska. May have to borrow this.
So, only Gotham is allowed to be incredibly elitist? Only Gotham is allowed to delude itself with visions of its own groundedness in reality? There's nothing all that incredible about the reverse elitism of Small Town America, because perpetual adolescent solipsism is American whether you're left or right, urban or rural. What is still incredible is the snobbery of liberal academics and metroculturals who continue to insist that they're the only ones entitled to believing they're the center of the universe. I used to enjoy this blog more when it wasn't in constant pro-Obama/anti-conservative mode.
"I used to enjoy this blog more when it wasn't in constant pro-Obama/anti-conservative mode."
When was this golden era? I've been an Obamabot from jump. Pass the Kool-Aid please.
In defense of rural drug users, there's really nothing else for them to do.
In fairness to Smallville's elitism, it is the hometown of Superboy. They have a right to hold their heads up.
Also, I choose to interpret L.T.'s post about Gotham as a Batman reference.
So, only Gotham is allowed to be incredibly elitist?
Well, they do have Batman.
I lived in cities and close-in suburbs for the first 42 years of my life. A job change took me to a city of 25,000 in a rural area of the upper midwest. The smallest place I ever lived. I thought I would enjoy it or, at least, find a way to enjoy it. I did not. It was racist, parochial, mediocre, uncreative, even oppressive at times. I made some good friends and I miss them; housing was affordable; our local hospital was superb; I knew all my elected officials including my Congressman by their first names. Not so true in the much larger place I live now. Maybe there are tradeoffs wherever we live. Well, I spent eight and a half unhappy years there until another job change earlier this year took me far, far away. May God strike me dead if I ever again think that a rural community, even a larger one, would be a nice place to live.
I was born in a small town in VA, and the one thing I can tell you about growing up in one is that most of the cats I knew couldn't wait to get the hell out. And none of the friends I had in high school actually still reside there. Most have scattered across the country and live in big, elitist cities like Washington, NYC, San Diego, and LA.
PS, since TNC brought up Smallville, let me just say that Tom Welling needs to be cast as the next big screen Superman as much as Barack Obama needs to be the next president. That is all.
Amen. It's just as annoying to hear the contempt towards big city types as it is to hear contempt towards rural living.
It should be noted that Palin actually brought big-town national-style politics into the mayoral race for Wasilla, which had previously been much more about local, pragmatic issues. Her disingenuity in claiming to be a small-town, family values type is just as nauseating as George W. Bush pretending away his Yalie priveleged Conneticut backgrouond with his phony brush-clearing Texas farm image.
I lived in a small town in Alaska for 3 years. I was a criminal defense & child protection lawyer. It's a teenage wasteland, and kids have nothing to do but stuff they shouldn't, and it's not good when you can't get around except by car. Same as the suburbs, actually.
Everybody go rent "Over the Edge" - I think it was Matt Dillon's first movie, and it is completely perfect.
Small towns can be great until you hit age 12. Then they turn great again when you are around 40, if you can find a way to support yourself in one.
It's the in-between years that are hard, because there are very few local ways to make the transition between those two ages. At some point in life, you've got to go somewhere else to get educated and start your career. Consulting and telecommuting come later.
I don't always agree with Chapman but just about everything he writes is thought-provoking. This is a brilliant column. It sums up my feelings totally.