In reading a WP article my sister linked on FB earlier about Sarah Palin’s tenure as mayor of Wasilla, it really is kinda sad that everyone understands small town and community worlds, but when they try to apply it to the big picture, they find they cannot cope with the backlash.

In a small town or city, even in a big town or city, the people who live in these places live with themselves or their family. They raise children, send them to school, walk in the parks, drive through town, shop at stores, eat at local restaurants, and generally live out their life with their family and friends in the town they live in. For most of America, the small town mentality is that of people who stick together and help each other out because nothing else, and no one else really matters at the moment. The plights and woes of thousands of people thousands of miles away in a bigger city or town don’t concern those people, why should it?

For local politicians, they listen to citizens because many of them aim to change their communities, help those in need, and try to make life easier for everyone in the process. Some double as regular citizens, you see them at your local store, at the gas station pumping gas, and at the park. When it comes to forming policy in a town, you spend taxes on what is important to the people first. Education, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Commerce, and Maintenance and Upkeep.

But often when it comes to taxes and city planning, the two often do not end up being mutually exclusive. Often a corporate chain or big-box store will want to come in and build in your town. Government sees this as a good chance to nab some extra cash from taxes, citizens will see it as a good chance to obtain new services or goods. But suddenly they hire foreign or out-of-town employees, denying locals a decent job, they drive local businesses that might be in the same market out of business from competition, and they let the land and atmosphere around them deteriorate where it no longer feels like the rest of the town. The day and night different starts to look like Hill Valley 1955 versus 1985 from Back to the Future where the once quaint and pristine town becomes worn and jagged. People with a bit of money saved up move away to find someplace nicer, and those homes are forced to be sold or rented to lower-income folks from other towns in order to fill them and take in some sort of property tax. Federal government programs allow some of these people to receive benefits and necessities without the state or local governments getting much of anything in return and soon enough the town simply becomes undesired by anyone, including those who live there.

This kind of thing doesn’t happen everywhere, and I am not suggesting that corporations, the federal government, or poor people are to blame, but we’ve become a society where no one takes any personal responsibility for themselves, their families, their neighbors, towns, cities, or even our country. We have allowed personal freedom and progressive thinking to destroy traditional values, common sense, and apparently our integrity and honor as intelligent beings that many people would rather sit on the couch all day collecting unemployment checks rather than go out and find a new job and contribute to society again, in so many ways. Our government refuses to show any sense of solidarity as a country and work with each other to enact common sense legislation to help its citizens, instead pandering to corporate interests, special interests, religious interests, and party interests. Republicans protect big business and the rich by cutting taxes away from essential services and abandoning the urban cities and lower class, while the Democrats tax-and-spend from taxing the rich to barely fund essential services, but rather fund social services aimed at the less fortunate who largely refuse to get jobs because they’d rather the government run all facets of their lives. Case in point, Republicans look after the rich, Democrats look after the poor. Both parties screw over the middle class, making them shoulder most of the tax burden, all while allowing our country to continue to be overrun by illegals and foreign interests, piling up the debt, pandering to countries and groups that hate us, and sticking our nose in business we shouldn’t be.

Our lawmakers at the federal level should have experience working in local or state government. They should know what people need and want, and they should be able to balance budgets accordingly, read and write bills that make sense that anyone can read, have term limits, and not be pushed by outside interests.

TL;DR: Maybe we should make all lawmakers build a successful Sim City? Hard mode. No cheats. Nuclear allowed. Final Destination.