At the same time, the same day, 20 minutes south down I-75, Barack Obama and Stevie Wonder, (thereby winning the cooler than contest) are wooing voters in downtown Cincinnati. Today, I hear tell of Laurence Fishburne sightings down at election headquarters getting out the vote. It's as if Horton has heard the Who's yelling from Ohio.
It's two days before the presidential elections and I am reporting to you from beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio, in what turns out to be "ground zero" in this years political race. Two of our counties, Hamilton and Butler, have been identified as the swing areas that could decide who wins the election of 2012.
As well it should be.
Hamilton County and Butler County are separated by just 10 miles down the I-75 corridor. Cincinnati is located in Hamilton County, but the northern suburbs are located in Butler County, known as Mason/West Chester, Ohio. It is absolutely striking how two places, so close to each other in miles, could be so different in political mind sets.
When the 1960's finally rolled around to Southern Ohio, sometime late in the 1970's, Cincinnati residents fled north from the city as it became more progressive (a big word for any part of Ohio), along with the urban blight that accompanied the changing economy of that decade.
Cincinnati has always been a contrast of black and white, always polarized, and frankly, somewhat confused by the recent influx of other ethnicities. Our lines had always been very clear, up until the last few decades or so.
You have to understand that Cincinnati, while the gateway to the south, is also, usually, a decade behind the rest of the world. Just ask Mark Twain. Up until the last 20 years, the regions idea of ethnic food was 16,000 Chinese restaurants. Sushi didn't arrive until the mid-eighties.
If Cincinnati is ten years behind, that would make its northern sibling, Mason/West Chester, at least 20 years behind. It remains solidly republican, conservative, and homogenous, which is my nice way of saying very, very white.
These are the children of the generation that jumped up the social latter during the great manufacturing years, when Ohio ruled the world in steel production and automotive superiority. This is where the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, a crazy mix of conservative rebellion and alcoholic melt down, comes to us from.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama chose to save the auto industry, thus saving the bread and butter of thousands and thousands of Ohio workers. At the same time, conservative voters tend to have short memories, except when thinking fondly of the 1950's, and will forever yearn to bring the sensibilities and social structures of those day back. Down south, in the Queen City, we seem to have acknowledged, finally, that times move on, and the only constant in life is change.
Suddenly, we are like the ugly girl that came back from summer vacation transformed and finds herself to be the belle of the ball. Never have I been courted so intimately for my vote. Ohio is the perfect breeding ground for indecision, and that makes us hot.
For me, November 6th, election day in the United States, can't get here quick enough. I'll check back in with you later.
