As some of you know, I am originally from a small town in northeast Iowa called Janesville. Not too far away from my hometown is the hometown of my dad, his two brothers, and my late grandparents, Parkersburg. Recently, though, Parkersburg got national attention, but for the wrong reason.
Due to severe weather and tornadoes, Parkersburg has been leveled.
One of my uncles still lives in Parkersburg, and his house is no more, save for the kitchen floor and the basement. Fortunately, he's okay and has found people who will take him in while he and his neighbors start to sift through the wreckage.
But this post isn't about that. When my uncle needed help, his neighbors and members of my family were there. And I guarantee the same could be said for most of the people in Parkersburg, if not all of them. Why?
Because small town America is like that.
Not so long ago, a certain Senator from Illinois with Presidential aspirations said the following:
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 25 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 toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Come to Parkersburg, Iowa, and say that, Senator. And be prepared to eat some crow.
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