From Enterprise to Salem: "What are you guys doing?"

I spent the last weekend in beautiful Enterprise, Joseph and Wallowa Lake, Oregon. As I walked around the Wallowa County Fair (which by the way, was exactly like the county fairs I grew up with), the word got out that I was some sort of talk show host. Though I am on a Salem station, I guess someone, I am sure a complete nutjob, had heard of me. The questioning then began. "What is going on with you crazy Valley people?" and other similar queries.

It seems the folks in Wallowa County are actually CONSERVATIVES, and they don't understand nor do they care for us "city folk" and the "stupid decisions" being made here in the Willamette Valley.
I carefully explained to them "IT'S NOT ALL OF US, PLEASE!!! I told them how basically FOUR Valley counties rule our entire state and those 4 counties HATE anything that remotely smacks of God, America or Conservatism.
That didn't seem to placate them, but at least they understood that not ALL of us over here in the Willamette Valley are completely nuts! They just wanted to know why "we", meaning residents of the Willamette Valley, were letting the Legislature and Governor Kulongoski get away with all that they did in the last session. They understood very clearly how devastating the new tax increases, JOB KILLING TAXES, really are. One might think "aw heck those people are nothing but a bunch of redneck cowboys who couldn't spell their own names". One would be correct, at least that is what THEY think WE think! No, au contraire, they are REALLY smart people and they know a stinker when they see one and that is why they continue to elect some of the smartest people in Oregon, to the Legislature.

The good people of Wallowa, Union, Baker and other rural counties just feel like they have been left completely out of the political picture. Sure they are few, but aren't they still Oregonians? Why must we live with a system that allows 4 counties to run this entire state? Please, someone enlightnen me?