I recently traveled to Ohio, a journey into an issue that continues to befuddle me.
The phenomenon of voters voting against their own best interest is something I will never understand.
As I passed through West Virginia I found a very depressing scene: factories were shut down and cranes doing construction replaced the beautiful farms and the rolling foothills of Appalachia. Today, the Ohio River no longer looks like the river Zane Grey wrote about; today it looks like a river flowing to a sewage dump, as bottles and garbage float downstream. The only businesses that seemed to be thriving were lottery and gaming enterprises.
The newspapers in that region were all focused upon plans to open up casinos in hopes they would create jobs. In an area where there are so many people who are broke they couldn’t leave if they wanted to, they will eventually take their last couple of dollars and gamble, in the vain hope they might strike lightning and be able to leave.
Then I got to Cambridge, Ohio, where I visited my relatives. I was only there for a couple of days, but I decided while I was there, I would learn a little more about the people of Ohio and satisfy my confusion about the recent midterm election, where former representative John R. Kasich, a Republican, beat Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, one of the few gubernatorial candidates to embrace President Obama, and where, in the Senate race, George W. Bush administration budget director Rob Portman beat the Democrat, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.
I went to the bars, talked to the locals and got a better grasp of the political inclinations of the folks I met. The racial makeup was mostly white; a few blacks were present, but I saw no other ethnic groups; if someone was gay it was not disclosed.
Mostly though, the conversation centered upon the upcoming Buckeyes game: that is, until I told my fellow bar patrons that I live in Washington and that I support Obama.
Then the debate became spirited; Obama got blamed for the economy being so bad in Ohio, even though there was a Delphi plant nearby that had been saved because of the stimulus money that went to GM.
Then a woman started complaining, worried she might lose her health benefits because she got laid off from work. She said she might have to go on Medicaid.
Then she criticized Obama for trying to socialize the healthcare system!
But I left the bar, only more confused. I decided to buy some local papers to see if they could shed some light.
Instead I read about how Kasich was expect to turn down $400 million in stimulus funds intended to build a rail line connecting Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland.
“Ohio has no national transportation system in the state, building a much needed rail line connecting the cities in Ohio transportation system will create jobs for the people who supported him,” wrote Barry Hortsman, in the Cincinnati Inquirer.
Kasich and other Republicans “campaigned to create jobs, and with 400 million offered in stimulus money from the Obama administration, the newly elected governor an opportunity to create jobs, and like Gov Christie, is deciding to scrap it.
“Such misguided notions might dissuade those who are suffering in Dover to revoke social services that aid their very own families.
All throughout the region, the talk was of less government, doing away with entitlements, cutting Social Security, repealing “Obama Care,” stopping the spread of insidious East Coast philosophies that threaten Midwestern values.
The Republicans in Ohio will have you believe that LeBron James needs a tax break. And they are so cleverly skillful at uniting moral conservatism with business interests that those who are poor or have limited education end up believing that doing away with services that they call entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, is in their best interest and even patriotic.
Just do not get broke, old, injured or laid off.
However, it is hard, to the point of being infuriating, to try to discuss politics with someone from Ohio.
