Jonathan Allen is Politico’s White House bureau chief.

Sam Youngman’s confessional tale in Politico Magazine about the culture of Washington and his move to Kentucky clearly struck a nerve, sparking a lively debate on social media and blogs. While many readers said they could relate and cheered Youngman’s candor, others took issue with his argument, and more than a few found it ironic that the piece ran in Politico . Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post’s “The Fix” blog came to the defense of DC scribes (Why Washington journalism doesn’t suck ” ), and at Slate Dave Weigel stood up for the city itself, calling Youngman’s piece “The Ultimate Hate-DC Essay of 2013.” The most practical response came from Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins, who provided a handy guide to “20 Things Beltway Journalists Can Do To Be Happy in D.C. And Not Have To Move To Kentucky.” Here, Jonathan Allen, Politico’s White House bureau chief and a native of the Washington area, offers his take.

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Sam Youngman has found peace in his old Kentucky home, choosing the relative calm of bluegrass pastures over the mud churning of Washington’s full-tilt, no-finish-line horse race.

We should all celebrate the fact that his journey of self-discovery, recounted in Politico Magazine, appears to have a happy ending—even if he still feels the occasional yen to write about #ThisTown and thereby renew his membership in The Club, even from afar. (At 11:51 a.m. on Thursday, Twitter informed me that @thefix, @morningmoneyben, @davecatanese and “351 more just followed @samyoungman ”).

Like many of America’s best, brightest, most ambitious—and yes, ego-driven—he was once drawn to a bustling, thriving capital city that he now claims to revile. Washington is the easiest of all targets in America: It taxes, it spends, it fights, it shuts down and it’s full of thousands upon thousands of bureaucrats who, according to legend, do nothing but make life harder in “real America.”

It is also my home, and a city well worth defending. While native Washingtonians have grown accustomed to the frequent pot shots from sanctimonious haters, there’s something pernicious about facile and self-serving stereotypes that leave readers with less—not more—understanding of their government. Particularly when they’re reinforced by people who should know better.

“Washington is an endless maze of funhouse mirrors,” Youngman writes. No. You might not always like what you see, but This Town is a mirror of America—not a dystopian Hunger Games capital, but the nerve center of a dynamic, successful experiment in civil society. It is the swap meet for representatives of farmers, miners, manufacturers, truckers, tech innovators and, yes, moneychangers. Most journalists come here from cities and towns across America, bringing with them the values of their communities and their varied experiences.

Sure, Washington attracts climbers, socialites and folks who jockey for handshake position at weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals—not to mention an endless line of whiners who love to recall just how great things were back home in the city, town, suburb or exurb they couldn’t wait to leave. Most of all, though, it draws people who want to be part of the debates that shape our democracy. The vast majority of them don’t spend their nights at the Hay Adams hotel bar trying to gain power through osmosis and won’t ever ride on Air Force One. All of which brings me to another canard: Washingtonians aren’t real people.

“What struck me most was the positive contrast with the Washington whirl, and especially the unfamiliar and conspicuous absence of ego,” Youngman writes of entering the Lexington Herald-Leader’s newsroom. “Here were people, real people, doing the best they could to put out a great newspaper with limited resources before they went home to spend time with their kids.”

Presumably, that contrasts with the Washington body-snatcher journalists who spend their days plotting to do the worst for themselves, their readers and the families they would have if they didn’t harbor an aversion to marriage and procreation that is apparently peculiar to the Washington metropolitan area.

If anything, Sam identifies the very characteristics that most unite Washingtonians with their fellow Americans. We work hard, we have limited resources and we like to spend time with our kids. Federal workers—I’m married to one—have been through a shutdown and furloughs in the past year. “In Washington,” he writes, “a divided America is good for business.” But it is Youngman and his ilk who seek to turn the rest of the country against its capital for power, fortune or fame.

It’s so easy to beat up on Washington and so perilous for politicians to defend it. When was the last time a candidate successfully ran for president as a Washington insider? Youngman’s right that there are egos of cartoonish proportion in Washington (present company included). But how does that differ from any other center of high performance—say, Silicon Valley, Hollywood or Wall Street? There’s nothing wrong with celebrating achievement. Just ask those humble small-town Kentucky basketball coaches Rick Pitino and John Calipari.

I didn’t know Youngman well when he was in Washington—I recall seeing him at a Nationals game (we were both in box seats, naturally)—but I knew who he was, and I suspect he knew me by reputation as well. I gathered that he was rather well-liked, and he’ll certainly have no trouble finding work if he wants to come back to what he describes as the Washington media “shark tank.” Despite all the invective, it sounds like he wants back in the game.

“I might someday return to This Town,” he writes. “If I do, I hope it will be with this new mindset and that whatever self-destructive remnants of my ego remain buried deep in the limestone-enriched soil of the Bluegrass. Short of that, my greatest hope for the political reporters I left behind is that they find their Kentucky. You’ll know it when you get there.”

We’re here, Sam. Never left. Can’t wait for your return.