I’m from Pennsylvania. I was born in Philadelphia and I have a heartfelt attachment to the state.
But I learned today that the Very Big Three for Mr. Kerry an Mr. Bush are the states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. These are the states “up for grabs,” the states that don’t know what they want, the states that somehow can’t distinguish between a mandate for larger wars and economic uncertainty and a call for change in the way the rich seem to get richer.
What is the problem with these states? Is their ambivalence a sign of insecurity? Does these states’ political ambiguity signify a population of stupidity or perhaps noble defiance of preditability? Do these states represent the best or the worst of America and its supposed United States? And, finally, will the upcoming massive visits by both candidates to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida really matter when the rest of the states will be ignored for the next eight weeks?
PA – Bankers and Quakers, FLA – Old People and expatriate Cubans, OH – Midwesterners. I think that sums it up. Tom Ridge was your Governor – explain THAT. Was he as much of a place-holder when he was Governor, as he is now, as Secretary of Homeland Security? Philadelphia is to PA as NYC is to NY State. The equivalences are pathetic.
A good chunk of FLA are just rabid kooks who’d just as soon be somewhere else – Hawaii, Cuba, Israel, some offshore tax-haven. Name it, that’s why they’re ALREADY in FLORIDA – Delaware and New Hampshire were too COLD.
Ohio? I don’t know anything about them. If they’re willing to stay there, rather than emigrate to Chicago or New York, they must be complacent. Have you ever been to Ohio? It’s flat, and a cold wind blows off of the lake. There are racial problems in Cincinatti, though the town was arguably one of the ‘port’ cities in the Underground Railroad, and should have figured out black people a long time ago.
So that’s my nutshell analysis – 4 more years (of hell) is contingent upon 3 states full of Absent-Entitled Landlords who are ready to re-invade Cuba, once Castro dies; Some inauthentic Quakers and other small farmers who are being bled to death by Big Agro and the ambivalent residents of an ambivalent state.
Kerry will win them only if their citizens are hurting and Jeb allows his colored people to vote this time around. 2-to-1 on the ‘Southern Strategy’ in this swing-state race, since Southern Ohio is really no better than Ascroftian Missouri.
(Ooooh – I’m gonna get flamed for my regionalism – but then again, I live in a stateless ‘state’ without Congressional representatioon, inhabited by numerous tax-free Corporations that contribute nothing to our infrastructure. And no, it’s neither Guam nor Puerto Rico…) It’s alright, you can call me ‘boy’, Sir – Only $.25 for a shine, thank you…
victor, my only ‘flame’ to contribute is this:
http://socialistworker.org/2004-2/510/510_06_Roy.shtml
most brilliant commentary i’ve come across in a long while.
Thanks for the link, Cynthia! Reading the article now.
And I apologize for my previous remarks.
The entire state of Florida really didn’t need to be characterized in that fashion – I suppose I was just in a state of high dudgeon at the time that I wrote my first comment, above.
Unfortunately, many of us are anticipating more election chicanery from the state where the pResident’s brother still presides as Chief Executive.
Like you, I love Pennsylvania (mainly the western part), even though I haven’t been there for a long while.
Hopefully you guys will find the right way to vote come November 2. I prefer Bush since he has acted on whatever he said while with Kerry the best we can say is “we don’t know” and it seems that neither does he. But this is only my opinion.
Joshua Salik
Salik Games
“The empty half of the glass is always at the top.”