While true in the general case and your comment needed to be made, the specific city counselors in question are real pieces of work. I don't think country simple is the right phrase, maybe incompetent assholes.

For example, the fire chief ran an anonymous blog commenting on city council happenings (exposed years later when his WordPress install errored and exposed his username). For years he anonymously accused a citizen who opposed the Foxconn project of sleeping with opposition friendly city council members, and then variously:

mentally ill, hypocrite, dingbat, loser, village bully, liar, vile, a joke, an embarrassment, illiterate, a dope, a pimp, deceitful, evil, smelly, hateful, revengeful, crazy, nut job, embarrassing, profane, psycho, stupid, lowlife, vengeful, immoral, racist, witch, snake lady, freakshow, bitter, dumb, and much, much more