Published: October 07, 2008 11:08 am            

CURRAN: Yeah, Indiana still matters

The big Indiana story this spring was the unusual phenomenon of “Indiana matters” in the Democratic presidential primary. Neither candidate had a lock on the election, so they were wooing us. The phenomenon has now stretched into the fall and general election season as, once again, Barack Obama appears to be giving his opponent an unexpectedly tight race. The latest poll shows the two major-party candidates in a statistical tie here.

Indiana has not given its 11 electoral votes to a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson received them in 1964. Campaigns have devoted their resources to so-called battleground states and ignored us. This year, Obama has visited the state multiple times in the last few months, his campaign has set up more than 30 campaign offices here where volunteers work the phones, hand out campaign swag and visit perspective voters. They're sending out fliers and advertising on television. John McCain's campaign, belatedly grasping the threat, has begun airing ads, too.

There are several possible reasons for this change including demographic changes in the state and the unpopularity of the incumbent president being held against his party's chosen successor. Another reason has been becoming evident recently: our ideas about party identification; current events may help it swing the state.

“When we had to learn about it in school, the only way I could keep them straight was to remember “R” stood for rich,” said Lori Nifong of Jeffersonville while discussing perceptions of the two major political parties.

Over the past several years, the Republican party has largely been associated, to its benefit, with the God and guns ideals that appeal to the NASCAR dads, those who believed we needed a strong reaction to 9/11 which included invading Iraq and monitoring Americans, and the values voters of the Christian right. Yet the earliest comments I heard on what the parties advocated echoed Nifong's experience, and I've heard the same sentiment expressed repeatedly over the past week.

“The Republicans don't care about poor people,” was Grandma's comment on the subject, generally while defending Bill Clinton's misdeeds. Other relatives have testified her eyes would flash green with anger when discussing “those damn Republicans.”

“The Republicans only care about the rich guys,” was the belief expressed by both a retiree, who also asserted Social Security was the only thing the government ever did that worked, “if the bastards would quit robbing it,” and a 40-something cab driver, both of Clarksville.

The administration's initial attempt to simply transfer $700 billion from our Treasury to Wall Street did nothing to lessen this perception. My initial reaction when hearing about the bailout plan was to suddenly remember the warnings of several elders about Bush I while his seemingly benign son was running in 2000: “they're a bunch of crooks that took our money and gave it to their rich buddies in the 1980s.”

Polls show a majority of Americans trust Democrats more to improve the economy. Even those of us with little love for Clinton must admit the economy was in better shape in his day, though we may not give him all the credit or fail to see some of today's problems started back then. We can all understand which party has been in the White House and controlled Congress for most of the last eight years, and they clearly screwed up somewhere. Given the dire “Great Depression” predictions being handed out by the current Bush and his underlings, and the likeliness of them only helping Obama and congressional Democrats, it's hard not to wonder if Bush really hates McCain.

Whether it is the continuing bad economic news, the latest polls, questions now coming from embarrassed conservatives about Sarah Palin's qualifications, or even McCain's (principled and correct) opposition to ethanol subsidies, all indications are Indiana will continue to matter through election day. The Republicans can no longer depend on us. If Obama wins Indiana, we will continue to matter as we take our place as a battleground state in future elections.

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On a note much more important that presidential politics: Jeff people, when are we handing out candy and sending our kids out to collect it?

I've seen these goofy references about it supposedly being better to do it on a Thursday with school conferences than an actual Halloween Friday which may or not include a football game. So, I'm wondering about a couple of things, though the first thing, when drug and/or alcohol abuse among our city leaders became such a problem, would probably be inappropriate to share.

Has every Jeffersonville parent and Halloween participant heard about this change? How likely is it that some of us will be dressing our kids up and sending them out while we fire up the jack-o-lanterns and candy bowls at home on Thursday while some uninformed or rebellious souls opt for Friday? Will the candy-greedy pull what we did as kids, that is, trick-or-treat in Jeff on Thursday, then Clarksville and/or New Albany on Friday?

I'm not currently able, but if anyone wants to get us good and organized to save Halloween, I'm on board. Let me know. I've got three Halloween-loving teenagers with friends. They'll go door-to-door to spread the word if necessary. We'll call it a lesson in civics and sanity.



Jeffersonville resident Kelley Curran wonders if city officials might decide to also change the day adults ask strangers for treats, otherwise known as election day. Write her at kelinawriterhat@aol.com

        

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