Rome, GA in THE WASHINGTON POST

Here’s a story featuring the man who ran THE MAGNOLIA MEAT MARKET in my Rome, GA.

He blames President Obama for his business failure, and he’s going to hunker down until we have a new president.

The big takeaway that the so-called recovery since the swoon of 2008 has been jobless. It certainly hasn’t done anything for the middle class.

It’s too hard to get bank loans, there’s no choice but to drop insurance for employees, the real estate market hasn’t really come back, and regulations in general discourage small business.

Business is bad becasue people can’t afford the luxury option of buying meat from a local butcher. MAGNOLIA was an excellent store, and prices were pretty reasonable, all things considered.

I might want to add that people are too busy not to do all their shopping in one location. I haven’t noticed any downturn at WAL MART. People are even too busy to cook at all. The “fast food industry” really, really flourishes here. You have to put your name on a list and wait for seating at STEAK AND SHAKE.

And then the chain PUBLIX comes to town—which has, after all, “designer” meat at slightly lower prices. The chains have introduced the luxury features that used to be the domain of the local artisan of one sort or another.

Rome, GA looks prosperous. And the rich—particularly the hundreds of MDs in this regional medical center—are getting richer. But the life of the working man really is more contingent and vulnerable. There are fewer steady jobs with decent wages and benefits. Chains come to town all the time, but with little to nothing in terms of the kind of employment people with kids need to live decently.

The article adds that the members of Congress who forced the shutdown disproportionally represent places like Rome, GA, places that used to have far more jobs for ordinary working people than they do now, where the average income is below average, and where’s there’s pronounced cultural hostility to the president’s elitist indifference.

You also have to add that, as much as people blame Obama, they’re also paranoid about the entitlements on which they depend. And they really do wish that “social services” were better. They would love ObamaCare if it could deliver what it initially promised.

The political takeaway here might be pretty minimal for Republicans: Romney carried our Floyd County by more than two to one last time. There’s little room for the GOP to do better here. Our Congressional district and our state aren’t political battlegrounds.