Ohio And Clinton

A reader explains her appeal in the state:

You cannot underestimate the power of women needing to vote for Senator Clinton. In conversations with coworkers and friends, this need starts with women who are now forty years old and increases exponentially with age. It is almost a feeling they cannot betray womanhood by voting for any man. The historic nature of the vote coupled with nostalgia for the 90's, is very emotionally charged.

In many ways, Ohio is behind the times, and is not quite 21st Century.

Ohio still wants to have those high paying, manufacturing jobs of the 50's and 60's, and agriculture. I was struck by the interviews on 60 Minutes, Sunday night, from Chillcothe, Ohio. They all seemed to be bemoaning not being able to go to Florida once a year and buying a new car every two years. But only one had tried to get more education for the new challenges of the Global Market.

The state legislature has dragged its feet on fulfilling the Ohio Constitution’s mandate for state funding of education. The Supreme Court of Ohio has told them many times of the requirement, but is ignored. The legislature’s laughable solution was school vouchers, in effect, subsidizing the haves’ private education while giving the have-nots a limited choice. So Ohioans still are in a 50’s movie, play football in high school and Dad’s job will be waiting for you.

NAFTA did not kill the manufacturing jobs in Ohio; they were going, going, gone, before the agreement. But Ohioans have been waiting for some miracle to bring them back, and if their children do get an education, the children leave the state for better opportunities.

So we are in a state very much fighting the culture wars of the last century, educated in the last century, looking for the last century’s solutions.