Curtis Seltzer, rural land consultant and columnist, imagines that President-Elect Barack Obama comes to visit him in Blue Grass, Va.: "He stopped and then leaned on the tailgate with his foot on the bumper. He bummed a Lucky out of my pack. I couldn't tell whether he inhaled. 'Michelle's on my case,' he said as he waved it around, unlit. 'Girl knows everything.'" Here's part of the conversation:
"I take it you're here because you want to touch base with the grass roots?"
"Wisdom comes up from the bottom of the barrel. So what do I do now?"
"Your win was largely self-made and independent. Keep tacking toward what’s best for the general interest, not the narrowest interests of your political allies. Governing has become largely about who gets how much money and who gets to keep how much. Change that, and you’ve really done something."
"What does rural America want?"
"More money. Jobs. Lower taxes. Subsidies. Loopholes. Pork. Less hardship. More security. Health care. Retirement. Easier lives. Peace. Pride. We’re just like everyone else."
"So you’re saying don’t do anything special for farmers and rural communities?"
"No. I’m saying do things out here only when they make sense for everybody. If, for instance, you look at corn-based ethanol objectively and decide that, as a whole, benefits from this industry, use federal resources to nudge it along. But if your research shows that it’s not a good deal, then back off. Same with clean-coal energy, nuclear power, crop subsidies, farm taxes and everything else."
There's more, and it's pretty good. Read it here.
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