Will Manly, a reporter for the Hays Daily News and The Stir has a little gem circulating the States via email titled Dear Barack: You’re wrong about small towns. I have reprinted it at the bottom of this article, but first my response.

Will Manly is wrong about small towns.

Mr. Manly may believe he is from a small town, but Hays Kansas prefers to think it’s a city. From their web site: “Hays Kansas is the largest city in Northwest Kansas at the crossroads of Interstate 70 and US Highway 183. This city, which has approximately 20,000 residents, was incorporated in 1885. Hays is a growing city with excellent opportunities.” (emphasis mine)

I live in a town of less than five thousand. I grew up in a town that boasted 1,100 residents. In retrospect I believe that to be a cumulative total. The point is, I know about small towns. Small towns are made of people, real living people, not the caricatures Manly and Obama have painted.

“We don’t vote for Democrats because we’re self-reliant so we don’t like the government trying to “solve” everything for us.” So I guess Plainville didn’t appreciate the government’s help when the Schult Homes announced it was closing earlier this year. Plainville is a small town of roughly 2000 residents 25 miles north of Hays on US183. The one hunderd laid off workers there are scheduled to receive a workers assistance package that includes classes on resume and skill building, tuition reimbursement and help in relocating.

I didn’t find any articles by Mr. Manly denouncing this government hand out.

I doubt Mr. Manly knows the difference between government assistance and government interference. Government assistance is when help is given to American in need. It’s what is being done in Plainville and what wasn’t done in New Orleans. Government interference is typified by the grossly misnamed Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping.

Mr. Manly starts his article expressing fondness for Barack Obama. Forgive me if I find it a a bit disingenuous to state, “Eloquent, gifted, genuine yes” only to follow with “But dangerously naive at best”. Sounds to me Manlys attitude toward Mr. Obama is much like Clark Griswald’s ‘fondness’ of Cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon Family Vacation movies.

When I read, “But anymore I’m finding it harder and harder to root for you” my first thought was I don’t believe Manly has ever rooted for any democrat, let alone Obama. Even if it was to defeat Hillary Clinton. I don’t doubt the thought of Ms. Clinton as President gives Mr. Manly nightmares, I do doubt he has ever thought of Obama as his salvation.

“Sometimes people say things they don’t really mean.”
Really.

Mr. Manly seems to have a penchant for making statements that while on the surface seem reasonable upon closer scrutiny are at best ‘dangerously naive’, at worst conscious efforts to deceive.

Case in point, “Here’s a thought: Maybe gun rights voters know gun control laws kill people and steal freedom.” Gun control laws no more kill people than guns do – people with guns kill people.

Mr. Manly also seems to be confused about freedom and rights. The second amendment to the constitution gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms. Gun control laws limit rights. Now if you believe the government cannot place limits on our rights think again.

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The government can and does limit liberty and in extreme cases even take a life.

Where is Mr. Manlys’ outcry for the enemy combatants held for years without a trial or even counsel? I would say being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay is a greater theft of freedom than not being able to own a fully automatic pistol. Both are unconstitutional.

Concerning gun control, unless you define gun control as the ability to hit what you are aiming at I would be against it. It seems to me the fewer laws we have the happier we will all be. I find it curious however that the same folks who would remove all restrictions on gun ownership believe sending someone to prison for smoking marijuana is perfectly acceptable.

“And here’s my favorite thought of all: Maybe small-town folks are – really – capable of thinking. All on our own”.

One of the few statements in the article I can agree with. Like most small town folk I don’t need a politician to do my thinking for me, or some big city wanna be pretending he’s a small town journalist. Especially when their opinions are not that different.

Seems to me neither man really knows small town America.

Both seem to think small town America consists of gun-toting, bible-carrying, guvment-hating yokels. And while there are folks like that most are ordinary people, some own guns, some don’t, some go to church, some don’t, some are the nicest people you will ever meet and some are the meanest. In other words – real people.

People who don’t like being used to sell papers.

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Dear Barack: You’re wrong about small towns.

Dear Barack Obama:
I grew to like you over the last year. I’ve always thought of you as dangerously naive at best. Eloquent, gifted, genuine, yes. But dangerously naive at best.
I couldn’t vote for you – but not because of your funny name or your lunatic pastor. I couldn’t vote for you because you say we should raise taxes (even on the rich, who I’m convinced already pay too much), and because you say we should abandon Iraq (which I’m convinced would be surrendering a war we must win), and because you don’t respect the Second Amendment (which I’m convinced should disqualify any politician from any office).
Still, I’ve liked your message of unity and your ability to inspire. And, since your rise I’ve hunted quite frantically, for young conservative leaders with your talent. (To my relief, I found Bobby Jindal.)
And I’ve long said if you beat Hillary Clinton, you will have done your country a tremendous service. But anymore I’m having a harder and harder time rooting for you.
First came your wife’s comment about being proud of America for the first time – conveniently, right after you started winning primaries. Then came your own words about your grandmother who is just a “typical white person” – a racist, or at least someone with racist tendencies. (I’m a “typical white person,” I suppose, and I’m no racist. In fact, little makes me angrier than when it’s insinuated I am.)
Sometimes people say things they don’t really mean. But this is a pattern.
Last week, we heard your comments about small-town America. Someone at a San Francisco fundraiser asked you why it’s so hard for Democrats to win in rural areas. You said:
“You go into some of 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…So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them…”

Is that a minority? HEY CLETUS, GET THE GUN! (If only we had a job to go to, some time in the last 25 years…)

Here’s a thought: Maybe gun rights voters know gun control laws kill people and steal freedom.
Here’s a thought: Maybe some of us have moral objections to an immigration system that forces rule-followers to wait decades for legal status, and rewards border-violators with amnesty.
Here’s a thought: Maybe some Americans cling to their church because their pastor is a nice person, because they find love there, because there they have something they can believe in.
Here’s a thought: Maybe, just maybe, us simpletons in small towns find it harder to be bigoted than all o’ y’all cityfolk. Maybe in small towns, where everybody knows your name – and how hard you work, if you pay your taxes, how well you treat your neighbors, how often you volunteer in the community, and whether or not you’re a good parent – people see the content of your character, so they don’t give a hoot about the color of your skin. (But I grew up in a small town where about a third of the population is of a different race than me. What do I know?)
And here’s my favorite thought of all: Maybe small-town folks are – really – capable of thinking. All on our own.
You’re wrong about why small-town Americans don’t vote for Democrats.
We don’t vote for Democrats because we’re self-reliant so we don’t like the government trying to “solve” everything for us. And because you tell your rich friends in San Francisco that we’re dumb. And because, each election, whichever one of you is running for president traipses all over the country telling us you have all the answers, that you’re the one on our side, that you understand and respect our way of life.
But each time, a little bit here and there slips out- and by the end of the campaign, we can tell what you really think about us. And we manage to learn who you really are.
And we see you’re just a horse’s ass.

Tags: barack, Barrack Obama, email response, gun control, small towns, Will Manly