A small-town Pennsylvanian's view of arrogance

April 13, 2008
Joanie Fischer

I am a "small town Pennsylvanian." There is no amount of explanation, or any claim of "mis-statement" that can erase for me Barack Obama's recent diagnosis of what ails small-town Americans.

I resent the fact that Barack Obama sees my faith, my belief in my right to keep and bear arms, and my negative opinion of those who have illegally invaded my country, as abnormal behavior, in need of remedy, and evidence of personal weakness and shortcomings on my part.

I suggest to Senator Obama that offering such unsolicited advice and diagnosis is evidence of deep arrogance and elitism the likes of which used to be unheard of in America's "public servants." Since when do those who "serve the public" take upon themselves the duty to mold that public into their own image ... and to define as abnormal those beliefs and characteristics that do not conform to that image?

Senator Obama, you possess some of the characteristics of one who envisions himself as god in human form. Such men must not attain positions of leadership in a free society. In serving as a United States senator, you have ascended far higher than your elitist mindset should allow. And I will do everything within my power to see to it that you ascend no further.

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 twenty-five 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.

I am not bitter. I am not frustrated. And for you to tell me that I am ... and to offer a diagnosis for my non-existent symptoms ... simply because I choose to place value on different things than you do, reveals volumes more about you than it does about me and my fellow small-town Americans.

A rough translation of your condescending statement above:

Americans who live in (Pennsylvania, and other) rural communities are turning to Christianity because they are experiencing difficult economic times. Their Christianity is a crutch and the scripture teaching, for where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst, has little to do with their reason for attending church with fellow believers.

Gathering on Sunday morning in the Lord's house with others of like mind and purpose in order to worship the God who gave us breath ... and to fellowship with others whose faith is focused on Him ... is simply not a sufficient reason to "cling to religion."

Instead, the fact that our all-powerful, omniscient government has somehow "let us down" has transformed us into wretched creatures who have no alternative but to surround ourselves with other fellow wretches and "cling to religion" as a foundation of last resort, since the God of Government has somehow failed to provide us jobs and economic security.

We treasure our right to keep and bear arms for the same reason. Our wretchedness causes us to cling to antiquated symbols of "worth" and "power." Our desire to own a gun has nothing whatsoever to do with a right bequeathed to us by our Founders, or to an increased awareness that our government is systematically stealing from us every freedom granted by God and secured by our Constitution. And our "fascination" with guns has nothing to do with our educated awareness that the declaring of gun ownership as "criminal" has preceded the imposition of total tyranny over countless numbers of oppressed people throughout the history of modern civilization.

No, we are simply weak, paranoid, redneck wretches who haven't the wherewithal to obtain a sense of personal security or self-worth without having a weapon within arm's reach.

The fact that we "small-town Americans" resent the millions of criminal malcontents who have taken up illegal residence in our country is not due to the facts that:

• These criminals are enjoying many of the benefits of residency here without contributing to those benefits as American citizens are, and they are sometimes even receiving preferential treatment from a government that answers more to special interests than it does to its electorate.
• Many politicians in Washington are pandering to these criminals, to the detriment of the American citizen and those whose charge it is to protect our borders.
• These criminals are committing crimes (many of them deadly) against the citizenry of this country at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the population.
• A contingent of these criminals is here with the specific intent of "reclaiming" large portions of the southwestern United States as their own.
• Many of these criminals are making no attempt to assimilate into American society, but instead are fomenting division, hatred and balkanization in the locations in which they take up residence. They are demanding that legal Americans alter their lives and laws in order to accommodate them and their native language and heritage.

The above considerations are, however, irrelevant. "Small-town Americans" harbor a negative opinion of these criminals simply because they aren't like us. They are of a different national origin, and we are closed-minded bigots. We are "taking out our frustrations" on them simply because we are a small-minded people.

What Barack Obama would have us believe is that America is in dire need of a president who is capable of having us recognize the "faults" listed above, and then declare as a national priority the eradication of those "faults." Re-education camps might be in order. Or more gun control. Or more hate crimes legislation. Perhaps we can even re-define "anti-illegal immigrant" speech as a hate crime. Yeah. That's the ticket.

Senator Obama, your brand of arrogance is a threat to every American, and every freedom-loving person on this planet.

I worship only one God, and I am suspicious of any man who deems himself one. And any man who defines my devotion to my religion as the result of "bitterness" and "frustration" has stepped over the line of civility and humility.

That you are a front-runner for the office of the presidency, and that you could conceivably become the leader of the free world, is every freedom-loving American's worst nightmare.