Obama is not particularly honest about the root cause of small town America's decay. The sort of politics that he, McCain and Clinton represent are the chief cause of why the poor are struggling in America. For example, on immigration, they are all bankrupt. I doubt that they have really spent any serious amount of time living in a small town in the past few decades because if they did, they would be outraged over illegal immigration. In many small towns, there are plenty of jobs that are taken over by illegal immigrants that Americans would in fact do. Yet because many illegal immigrants are content to live in terrible conditions that are not conducive to family life (such as small apartments and condos with enough bunk bedding for 20-30 people to live there), they can afford to work at these jobs cheaper than ordinary Americans. That is just one way that they have been cheated by the Washington establishment.
The inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve System, which are needed to finance the large government programs that all three candidates love in one form or another, has done tremendous damage to the ability of the poor to life themselves up out of poverty. Liberals love to point out that people today have to work harder to earn slightly less than previous generations made, but true to form, they are not reflective of why this would be. Ah, yes, inflation. You cannot easily finance a modern welfare state or a modern military that is always ready to immediately go to war, while your currency is based on sound money because there is a hard limit on how much you can tax and spend. Yet you don't see Obama taking a page from Ron Paul here and advocating the abolition of the Federal Reserve so that our debased currency can be brought back under control. In liberal land, if money cannot grow on trees (or be made from trees, I suppose), then neither can "hope."
All that said, I am not ready to give up on small town America. If Northern Virginia has taught me one thing, it's that the ridiculously crowded urban areas and their suburbs bring with them a high cost when it comes to doing business. As technology advances, it will be far easier for entrepeneurs to create cheap outsourcing opportunities in bumblefuck, America that will combine the benefits of outsourcing to India with the benefits of a native workforce. In rural America, $80,000/year for a senior engineer with 15-20 years of experience is a solid wage. It buys a house, puts two to three cars in the garage, supports a family of four to six and let's the wife stay at home. In places like Northern Virginia, $80,000 barely gets you a mortgage on a basic condo or townhouse, provided you had the time to save up for a downpayment which you probably wouldn't be able to on such a "small" salary around here. It's only a matter of time before the math becomings too compelling to ignore.
If I learned one thing about the candidates this election, in particular Obama it is that they are extremely out of touch with America.
America seems to hold strong to their Christian heritage as noticed by Huckabee's rise and Romney's decrease and the outrage over Rev. Wright.
America is patriotic noted by the uproar over Obama's flag pin or lack of.
The candidates are also politically deaf to America. Illegal immigration is the probably the most important issue this election and nobody want to talk about it or they provide general lame policy that won't work.
Who knows, I may just be a small towner clinging on to religion and guns.
All that said, I am not ready to give up on small town America.
Nor I. There are a lot of reasons I live outside of a town of 9000 or so, in a county of 14,000, and work in a nearby city of 20,000. Sure, my neighbors do not all have college degrees. Most of them don't even have all their teeth. But they can grow a garden, weld an axle, hotwire a car, build a dam. They all work two jobs, because running cattle or haying just won't feed a family. They live in houses that would be condemned in more fashionable suburbs.
And they are by far the best folk I have had the pleasure to meet. They'll give you the shirt off their backs, or the keys to their backhoes, without hesitation. They are willing to help with anything and know how to do everything. Yes, sometimes I have to seek out people who have heard of Thucidides, and that's fine, that's why I work at a college. Do they expect anything in return? Hell yes, they expect you to be a neighbor, as they are neighbors.
I don't necessarily want to BE a redneck, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not ashamed to live in a place crawling with them.
Speaking of rednecks, most people don't even know the difference between your average redneck and white trash, though most of us who have lived in such areas know the difference.