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Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,451,396 times
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Or is it just a myth, spread by those folks in the Big City?
Those Good Ol' Boys | Rural Lawyer
That the good ol’ boy network is alive and well in rural communities should be no surprise to anyone. Nor should it surprise anyone that breaking into that network is going to be hard for outsiders – an outsider being anyone whose family has lived in the community for at least 3 generations. And frankly, in most small towns there are multiple networks and most consist of dedicated competent people – the days of the rural good ol’ boy network simply being a system used by the incompetent in an attempt to retain social position and power are, for the most part, past.
Having grown up in a small town, it's absolutely a thing. I think it's more or less inevitable in a place where two or three families can dominate the local politics.
I don't think this is limited to small towns and rural areas though.
Larger cities also give preferential treatment to people who have some sort of political, social, or economic influence, and there are usually more barriers and gatekeepers for the common folks to even be able to speak to the decision makers (they are more likely to be directed to one of the big wigs' staffers) than in a small town where someone can usually just walk in and talk directly with the Mayor or person in charge, or at least get an appointment to discuss concerns directly with that person, and not someone they delegated to screen people.
The difference with the sizable city is that they're usually slicker about trying to disguise the good ol' boy network as an innovative public-private partnership. Smaller towns don't often have the shrewdness or don't even see the need to try to disguise this type of preferential treatment that certain favored people get.
People who are established and have earned a lot of friends and are trusted in the community generally can have more influence everywhere.
It's only really a bad thing I guess if they can be called "Good old Boys"... the last racial and gender slur that is still widely allowed.
I will tell you what though, in my own town.... we're so small we don't have a mayor. Our policing and governance is done by the COUNTY government, in a county that includes many other towns and our state capital. We are far more controlled by "outsiders" than "insiders".
Nowadays, I might argue that local social media activity is more of a means to gaining influence in the area as having generations of ancestry here is. People lead by forming relationships with people.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 05-13-2021 at 08:42 PM..
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,451,396 times
Reputation: 6670
Funny, the Olympic Peninsula and uber-conservative Eastern Washington are among the last places one might expect to find 'PC', especially when development and local RE deals are often the most 'cozy' of all. And no community is 'immune'... though if the phrase really offends anyone, we could just call it Nepotism instead... even if it doesn't quite 'capture' that same small town 'personal' touch!
People who are established and have earned a lot of friends and are trusted in the community generally can have more influence everywhere.
It's only really a bad thing I guess if they can be called "Good old Boys"... the last racial and gender slur that is still widely allowed.
I will tell you what though, in my own town.... we're so small we don't have a mayor. Our policing and governance is done by the COUNTY government, in a county that includes many other towns and our state capital. We are far more controlled by "outsiders" than "insiders".
Nowadays, I might argue that local social media activity is more of a means to gaining influence in the area as having generations of ancestry here is. People lead by forming relationships with people.
I can give an example of a case where this would be an issue.
Suppose that a very influential person in the community (perhaps a real estate developer whose projects have added considerable tax base) calls the Mayor and complains that teenagers are driving through his area playing loud music in violation of the noise ordinance.
But then the Mayor is also getting calls from someone with less clout who works at the gas station about a meth house in their neighborhood. Unlike the developer, the Mayor doesn't know this person who is not a member of the country club where the Mayor and developer play golf and the Mayor's and developer's wives socialize with each other. The Mayor says "I'll look into it" but doesn't really because he doesn't know this person who lives in a marginal neighborhood anyway where people do this kind of stuff.
If the Mayor decides to call the Police Chief and have him or her focus attention on the noise violations in the influential person's neighborhood but makes the meth house in the gas station workers' neighborhood a lower priority because "folks in that neighborhood have so many problems it's hopeless", and the meth house catches on fire and spreads to the next house over where a scared 85 year old widow lives, then that's not good governance, is it?
There are many small towns that are better managed and this isn't as rampant as others, but this type of scenario (and less dramatic ones) happen all too often (and it happens in larger cities too).
I have lived in two small towns now (one about 5,000 people for three years and now one about 700, depending on how one defines the town boundaries, for just ten months), and so this is not coming from someone with a lot of experience, but I would say that it is still common.
However, in town #1 (2004-2007), people just accepted that "the family" ran things, but not in my current town. This is a town with many old families owning and managing the farms and small businesses, but there are just as many (if not more) seniors who retired here who are not willing to just let the old-timers call all the shots. In our town election about a month ago, I heard that that there was a major but unofficial social media and telephone "campaign" to defeat an established "big fish in a small pond" older (70-ish) man for the town board (due to conflict of interest*) with a write-in candidate who was younger and female -- and the old-timer was overwhelmingly defeated.
*He owns a restaurant that he wants to greatly expand, and if the expansion is approved, it would cause major parking and traffic problems for the town's quaint main street. As a member of the town board, he would be in a much better position to get his way.
Last edited by katharsis; 05-14-2021 at 06:39 AM..
I grew up in a small town. Don't remember that there was any conflict. The town pretty much ran itself and a lot got done without cumbersome procedure. "Just the way we've always done it."
We had an empty jail but we didn't have any law enforcement. Two guys with a truck took care of road maintenance, policing and retrieving stray dawgs.
In fact few people wanted to be elected to office so they tended to just let the ones who did want to and were doing an okay job stay in office. Our newspaper editor and the local postmaster to name two. Responsible men. Guilty of sexism by time and place of birth and no introduction to the concept.
People didn't let politics interfere with their lifestyles. They really did understand how broken a small thriving town like ours could be damaged by rhetoric and control.
I do remember once in a while someone moving there with the Constitution and Robert's Rules of Order "tattooed down their spine." They'd pontificate a bit and ruffle some feathers. Never a good way to win voters. Then they'd either set about the business of living the good life or they'd move on.
Typing that it sounds strange today but things ran pretty smoothly and people got along. There's a lot to be said for raising children and doing business in a place where people get along.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,451,396 times
Reputation: 6670
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lodestar
I grew up in a small town. Don't remember that there was any conflict. The town pretty much ran itself and a lot got done without cumbersome procedure. "Just the way we've always done it."
We had an empty jail but we didn't have any law enforcement. Two guys with a truck took care of road maintenance, policing and retrieving stray dawgs.
In fact few people wanted to be elected to office so they tended to just let the ones who did want to and were doing an okay job stay in office. Our newspaper editor and the local postmaster to name two. Responsible men. Guilty of sexism by time and place of birth and no introduction to the concept.
People didn't let politics interfere with their lifestyles. They really did understand how broken a small thriving town like ours could be damaged by rhetoric and control.
I do remember once in a while someone moving there with the Constitution and Robert's Rules of Order "tattooed down their spine." They'd pontificate a bit and ruffle some feathers. Never a good way to win voters. Then they'd either set about the business of living the good life or they'd move on.
Typing that it sounds strange today but things ran pretty smoothly and people got along. There's a lot to be said for raising children and doing business in a place where people get along.
But of course. Though like everything else in life, nuthin's ever free. So what's the 'Cost'... and who 'pays'?
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