True story: About six months ago, several things broke down at about the same time on my in-laws' small farm in rural South Carolina. First, the septic system went. Then it was the electricity. And finally, to top it all off, a colony of termites suddenly took up residence in the house my wife's father and his seven siblings grew up in -- a sturdy little A-frame that sits empty but well-kept an acre or so away from what's now the family's primary home. And in each case, the same thing happened: A polite, broad-shouldered young man in a work shirt came out to the farm, took a look at the problem, and announced that any solution would cost several thousand dollars more than my now-retired father-in-law had expected due to a new (or until recently unenforced) health, environmental or safety regulation.

The septic tank was a total loss; got to put in a new one, sir -- the gummint, you know? The electrical problem wasn't really a big deal in and of itself -- but the wiring throughout the house had to be expensively "brought up to code" before they could fix it. And the termite people, God bless 'em, they couldn't even begin to treat his daddy's old place until the existing well, which was too close to the "living area" that no one has lived in for many years, was sealed, and a new one -- one that met all the current regs, of course -- had been sunk.

Needless to say, my father-in-law was thrilled. After all, how often do you get a chance to spend your next five or ten Social Security checks all at once without, you know, getting to play shuffleboard on the Lido Deck or something? Not to mention the fact that getting screwed with your pants on is always twice as much fun when your hard-earned tax dollars are financing the operation....

Okay, so here's the punch line: As a good Democrat, I know why all this makes sense. We don't want people contaminating the environment with their septic tanks or burning to death in poorly wired houses or guzzling gallon after gallon of termiticide-tainted water. Clearly, those are not good things, and I think the government has an obligation to try to keep them from happening.

That said, Mr. Sonny, as the old man is known, is the one being asked to pay the check for my idea of what constitutes good government here. And while that may just be one of those facts of life that country people like him will eventually have to learn to live with, I would never insult those folks by implying that they're too stupid to know which side their bread is buttered on just because most of them vote for the guy who says he wants to get the government off their backs. Fact is, the government is on their backs, and it's on them in ways that most city dwellers don't even begin to comprehend.

Which, to make a long story short, is why this kind of well-meaning lefty claptrap so irritates me. Rural people aren't a bunch of dummies who've been snookered into voting their prejudices rather than their pocketbooks. It's a lot more complicated than that. And until we Democrats start to get our heads around the idea that the culture war is as much about people not wanting to be told that they have to rip the well out of the house they grew up in as it is about God and gays, I'm afraid that we aren't going to be able to get these folks to listen to a word we have to say.

POSTSCRIPT: Almost forgot. Via Matthew Yglesias, who, as you would expect, has a smart and witty take on all this.

UPDATE: See what I mean?

UPDATE 2: Well, that certainly went over well....

UPDATE 3: And even better (if that's possible) in the comments over at Political Animal.

FINAL UPDATE (7/21): Max Sawicky has more.

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