Rural/Urban American divide: Part MMMCCLVI

I’m thinking about the election again. After two weeks of trying to process Barack Obama’s insurmountable lead, I keep on coming back to the fact that we’re a divided country. It’s a divide that goes back to the dawn of the 20th Century, a divide between rural and urban America.  Sure, there are other divides (religious, ethnic, etc.), but it’s the rural/urban divide that engenders many of the other divisions. Even that is a little too general–I live in a large urban area, but I oppose Barack Obama.

For the past 8 years, every political talking head in the United States has tried to explain this phenomenon. Many of these hypotheses contain nuggets of truth, but I don’t think one explanation exists. For example, many liberal pundits immediately point to evangelical Christianity, the dominant faith in rural America, as the major force to the division between rural and urban America. Sure, evangelical Christianity plays a major role in the life of rural America and leaves an indelible mark on the lives of those in rural America; however, many people either in rural America or originally from rural America, such as myself, reject much of the Levitical law and social doctrine associated with evangelical Christianity. Again, religion probably plays a part in the division, but it alone is not the answer.

Instead of trotting out several of the old theories and discussing them, I thought I would offer a new theory to the divide between rural and urban America. I spent the first 26 years of life in rural America and the last 4 years in urban America.  One of the major differences I have observed are the range of services provided by urban cities. Most of my friends in high school, lived in unincorporated rural areas where you had to drill your own water well, so obviously public services such as public transportation, trash removal, and public recreational facilities were unheard of. When you live in an area like that, where you must provide your own water, your own transportation, etc., you learn to become truly independent and self-sufficient.  It’s easy to see how a rural American would find many Federal government programs superfluous. Again, if you’re forced to provide your own water, the most basic necessity of human life, why would you depend on the government for anything besides defense?

The city folk grows up in an area with the local government will literally provide for you every need under the right circumstance (water, food, shelter) and also provide many wants (transportation and entertainment), either free or at a cost. It’s easier for the city folk to comprehend a paternal form of Federal government where the “needs” and “wants” of a nation are provided for by a Leviathan-like body. Instead of worrying about where they will find water or health care, the city folkcan focus on activities of leisure. It’s no wonder that he or she would not be afraid of Obama’s efforts to increase the scope of government run social programs.

From the Archives

Over the past few years, I have started several blogs. For whatever reason, I haven’t stayed long on one site–until now. I’ve made a home of sorts here and I intend on sticking with it. With that said, I thought it would be nice to consolidate posts from my previous blogs as a means of chronicling my thoughts and providing you, the reader, with insight into my posts. Over the next few days and possibly weeks, you will notice several entries entitled “From the Archives:…”. I’ll publish these with a current date, but after a week I will send them back to their original date.

To my dedicated readers, don’t worry, I will continue to publish new pieces. The archives are strictly supplemental.

I hope you all enjoy and thanks again for reading. If you have a spare second, leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you think.

 

geoausch

Political t-shirts

What would the reaction of the Obama campaign, Democrats in general and Bush bashers be if the following t-shirts were made with Obama’s name and image? Would the same people who purchased these t-shirts complain about t-shirts with Obama’s name and image in place of Bush?

Wade Phillips must go…NOW!

When Jerry Jones made the decision to hire Wade Phillips I was initially skeptical. I didn’t know all that much about him, but I thought of him as just a generic head coach like Bruce Coslet, Jim Haslett, Wayne Fonts, etc. Phillips certainly didn’t have the resume necessary to lead “America’s Team.” However, over time, as I leanred more about his father and his Texas roots, Wade began to grow on me. As any good Cowboys’ fan knows, a Texas born coach will usually win a Super Bowl when coaching the Cowboys.

After a season and a half, it has become abudantly clear that my initial reaction was right. Wade Phillips is not qualified, nor does he understand what it takes to lead the NFL’s top franchise. As I sit here listening to Wade’s press conference, I’m reminded how he dodges the hard questions. At first, I thought it was just the overzealous Dallas media, but over time I see a man who doesn’t know how to deal with negative criticism. Coaching in Dallas, you’re going to receive negative criticism. Being able to quote stats like scripture won’t change the fact that we haven’t a playoff win in over a decade.

Not only can Wade not deal with negative criticism, but he can’t dish it out either.  He handles this team with a very delicate hand, choosing to let inamates run the asylum. This leads to a lack of discipline on the team, which leads to the mental mistakes that have plagued the Cowboys since Wade’s arrival.  A good coach corrects and eiminates mental errors. A good coach gets in his players faces when the make mistakes.  A good coach knows how to use a combination of positive and negative criticism to motivate his squad.  Without negative criticism, there will be no discipline and no motivation. Currently, this Cowboys squad plays with no discipline and no motivation.

Texas/OU

Allow me to preface this post by saying that I am neither a fan of Texas nor OU. Simply put, I am a fan of college football. However, I won’t deny the fact that Texans crossing the Red River to play at the University of Oklahoma irks me. Indeed, the Soooners might as well change the name of their institution to the University of Texas-Norman.

It’s no secret why so many Texans make the trip north–admissison and graduation requirements. In short, it’s easier to get into and graduate from UT-Norman than UT-Austin–one of the finest state schools in the nation.  Two squads so evenly matched talent wise, couldn’t be any further apart in the mind department and it showed in today’s game.

Covering high school football in East Texas a few years back, I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of talent currently in Division I. I’ll always remember watching Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford go head-to-head with former Michigan quarterback, now at Arkansas, Ryan Mallett. Additionally, I had the fortune of seeing many of the players involved into today’s game, including UT-Norman wide-receiver Manuel Johnson. Johnson was a 6’2, 180 pound, converted wide-receiver playing quarterback in the spread offense at Gilmer High School and led the Buckeyes to a state championship his senior year. He had decent speed and a strong arm, but I was always struck by his lack of mental toughness and lack of knowledge of the game.

I remember an explosive receiver for the Sulphur Springs Wildcats named Keenan Clayton.  Now a linebacker at UT-Norman, Clayton had all the physical gifts you’d want in a college athlete (6’2;  205, 4.4); however, I always though he lacked the mental toughness to be a prime time player.

Looking at UT-Norman’s performance today and in big games over the past few seasons, it appears that this is common among Sooners. Sure, they romp in games where they clearly out match their opponent, but in games where they’re evenly matched and things become more cerebral; they struggle mightily.  A smart team will avoid penalties, win the battle of the clock and protect the ball. Today the Sooners had more penalty yardage (73 to 55), committed more turnovers (2-0) and held the ball for only 22 minutes compared to Texas’ 37 minutes.

There’s your ball game…

St. Louis, Missouri Vice-Presidential Debate

I could sit here and analyze the Palin/Biden debate like a million other blogs, but if you have read or plan on reading any of my other posts you know where I stand and can probably predict what I will say.  With that said, I’ll spare you an in depth analysis. However, I would like to say that calling these  head-to-head meetings, “debates,” seriously cheapens the meaning of the word.

What we saw tonight and last Friday night do not even begin to resemble a debate. These are televised opportunities for the candidates to talk about their past, vaguely refer to the future and to demonize their opponent. At no time do the candidates ever come close to fully answering or even acknowledging the moderator’s questions. The American public would be well served if strict debate rules were enforced at least once every campaign season.

Moving forward, I finally figured out what discourages me the most about the McCain/Palin campaign. At several points during tonight’s debate and during the Presidential debate last Friday night, both Palin and McCain had the perfect opportunity to distance themselves totally from the Bush administration, but both times they failed to so.

Let’s face the facts, the past eight years have been an extreme failure. I can agree with the Obama/Biden campaign on that issue. However, we disagree on how to move on and repair the damages done over this time period. The Obama/Biden answer is, simply put, more government and more taxes. I still don’t understand how raising the taxes on someone who makes over $250,000.00 is going to help out my bank account.

The McCain/Palin campaign had the perfect opportunity to step back and say, we agree that the past eight years have been bad. What this country needs is a return to the basics–personal responsibility, smaller government, lower taxes, responsible foreign policy. As a government, they need to worry about their Constituionally prescribed duties and stop worrying about things not contained in that document. 

George W. Bush and Obama represent what the Republican Party is not. The McCain campaign would benefit by showing how Bush betrayed the basic principles of conservatism, limited Federal government, and fiscal responsibility. George W. Bush betrayed the United States and he betrayed the Republican Party. Palin should have said, “we aim to restore the United States by reducing the role of government in your life and the life of your business.” That, gentle reader, is the way to counter the Obama campaign and distance from the Bush campaign. Much more tomorrow…