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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > April > 13 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: What to do if the folks next door vote wrong?
The next thing that happens in this country’s ongoing political disintegration — movement away from oneness — is that people start deciding what state they want to live in according to politics. Or, at least, according to the juncture of politics and culture.
We already see people picking communities -— if not states — by politics partly. Think Yellow Springs, the charming liberal bastion whose loss of lefty Antioch College hasn’t really changed the flavor much.
Or take Warren County. It isn’t precisely politics that draws people to such “ex-urbs,” the bedroom communities far from urban downtowns. But the fact is that places like it — including Delaware County, north of Columbus — are hugely Republican. John McCain beat Barack Obama in Warren County by well over 2-1. And that was the worst Republican year in a long time.
As these places grow, the central metropolitan counties, by contrast, become more Democratic. Franklin County — automatically Republican for so long — is suddenly Democratic. And Hamilton County is moving that way.
Montgomery County used to swing back and forth between the parties. Now it has gone Democratic five presidential elections in a row, if not by much.
So, apparently the people who like the wide-open spaces and the new communities are politically different from those who like to be in or near a city.
In 2008, Oakwood — that famously Republican bastion a stone’s throw from downtown Dayton — seemed to have more Obama than McCain signs.
Besides the geographical divisions, we see a lot people picking their media outlets according to politics. What’s next? Phone directories made up of good liberal — or conservative — businesses with which to deal?
Listen to the hyper-partisans. There’s a level of personal hatred that sounds like war. I once wrote that I often hear liberals portrayed as dishonest, lavishly-funded, arrogant, self-serving people who hate the American people and their values and hate the country, and are cutthroats in pursuing their goals. One e-mail I got said, “You left out hypocritical.”
One has to wonder what level of hatred is left over for characterizing, say, foreign enemies.
We see the country’s failure to land the Olympics celebrated by a political faction (the one that claims to be more patriotic) because the city in question was Chicago. In a time when hate speech about race and ethnicity is largely shunned, the venom is funneled into politics.
That a few violent acts happen after something like the health care vote is not surprising. What’s surprising is how little violence there has been so far.
So how long will it be before the people pick their states on politics? Then how long before we start seeing secessionist movements because the states have less in common?
After the 2004 presidential election, a few people on the left — noting the big swaths of blue across the top of the electoral map — started talking about joining up with Canada. It was mainly a joke. But not entirely. It was, with some, more like an instinctive response that collapsed upon thought.
More recently, the governor of Texas felt obliged to tell people in that state who flirt with secession that he hears them.
Neither of those phenomena was big. But both were pretty new; I hadn’t heard about anything like them in decades.
Then there was the Virginia flap. The governor issued a proclamation about celebrating the Confederacy, the Southern side in the Civil War. He didn’t mention that the war was largely about slavery and that the South was on the wrong side of that issue. Then he apologized.
Just guessing here, but the original proclamation seemed not a meaningless slip-up, but a reflection of something in the air these days: the bitter reaction in some quarters to “big government.” Some southerners hung on for generations to the notion that big government was what the Civil War was all about.
The Civil War — along with the century that followed it — is the first subject that comes to mind when one thinks about times when the divisions between Americans were more intense than now. “Yankee” may have been even a dirtier word than “liberal.” And there were certainly worse words in common use.
Instead of a civil war, we now have a cold war. The last one of those never became a real war because one side collapsed.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics
Comments
By Stone
April 13, 2010 6:36 PM | Link to this
What exactly is the point of this opinion article? We all know Mr. Gottlieb is highly biased and liberal, as is the DDN. If he honestly thinks everyone is turning liberal and only the extremists are conservative now, he is going to have a big surprise come next election! It’s obvious the massive deficit we are collecting and poor health care reform is going to sink this country fast.
By Ralph Wiggum
April 13, 2010 7:17 PM | Link to this
“So how long will it be before the people pick their states on politics?” Mr. Gottlieb, the founders believed that was the right of the people to vote with their feet. Say, if you are a large multi-national corporation operating in a less business friendly state where there are no economic incentives to remain and the mayor of a medium sized city would not even meet with you and the policies in the state and city where you’re located are so not business friendly, why not move to a more conservative state that allows for greater tax breaks, less intrusive govt policies, and a better business climate such as Georgia? The sad thing is that the liberals in Washington want to take away powers traditionally controlled by states and have a one-sized fits all national policy (with say, health care). Then you can’t vote with your feet as the founders intended. Why has the southwest and southern states seen greater economic expansion and the Midwest and NE seen rapid declines? Higher taxes, more social programs, anti-business climates, less personal freedom, and the list goes on and on. Strange how states that are in bad shape (Cali, Michigan, NY) have always been controlled by Dems and states that have the greatest growth (Texas, Georgia) are traditionally controlled by Republicans.
By Waldo
April 13, 2010 7:20 PM | Link to this
Martin, The first civil war decided the issue of slavery; the next civil war will decide the issue of abortion.
By DUH
April 13, 2010 7:43 PM | Link to this
“Martin, The first civil war decided the issue of slavery; the next civil war will decide the issue of abortion.”—waldo… THIS TIME, WALDO, WE WON’T FEEL COMPELLED TO REBUILD THE SOUTH AFTER WE BURN IT IN WAR. DOING THAT LAST TIME WAS A MISTAKE.
By Rick
April 13, 2010 9:06 PM | Link to this
Guys the Civil War was fought over tarrifs not slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was written in 1863. What were we fighting for the first two years? Taxes. Don’t be surprised if that doesn’t start something.
By Bronwyn
April 13, 2010 11:31 PM | Link to this
Talk about labeling !I came back to live in Warren County because I was raised here , not because its a Republican bastion !
By Kurt
April 13, 2010 11:33 PM | Link to this
Just got back from the tea party at the Nutter—5000 strong—good to be around people who love their country—and hate Communism, you know—like the Congress, and the White House—Chairman Manchild Barack Hussien Obama
By tommyv
April 14, 2010 7:53 AM | Link to this
Oh Martin…yoo-hoo…and where did the DDN locate its new printing facility? Oh yes, it was Warren County! Why did they make that choice? Was it political or did they not want to deal with the “urban ills” themselves? Martin, in this country we can still vote with our feet and our dollars, despite the best attempts of you liberals to take those rights away!
By joe_mamma
April 14, 2010 8:24 AM | Link to this
Martin your piece really highlights a major bone of contention between conservatives/libertarians and liberals. Even though the Constitution makes the United States a constitutional republic, socialistic big government types like you don’t seem to accept that. You like to frame the debate as being between the “hyper-partisans”. It’s not. You are stuck in the 1990’s. It has evolved beyond party. We are now in an ideological debate about the proper role of government. BTW…the Oakwood precincts went for McCain.
By parental
April 14, 2010 9:37 AM | Link to this
Two things have caused what Mr. Gottlieb is describing. First, welfare as an entitlement as opposed to emergency assistance. Second, Unfair taxation that relieves nearly half of our citizens from any federal taxation. Low income people have moved to Franklin County, Montgomery County and Hamilton County to take advantage plentiful benefits. That makes the cities become more liberal and the party of liberalism is the democrats. It is also why many cities are having budgetary problems.
By ironmyke
April 14, 2010 9:41 AM | Link to this
“So, apparently the people who like the wide-open spaces and the new communities are politically different from those who like to be in or near a city.” Sort of but not exactly— Increasing sprawl has been going on for decades enabled by publicly financed highway and infrastructure construction, lots of relatively low priced farm land, and plentiful low priced fuel. The more affluent members of society have the financial means to keep moving farther out to areas having more people of their social and economic status. The more affluent are predominantly lean to Republican politics. Those who remain in or near the core on average have fewer economic resources and lean more to Democratic party politics.
By Lincoln
April 14, 2010 11:31 AM | Link to this
Rick is seriously misinformed.
By irishguy
April 14, 2010 3:21 PM | Link to this
If the folks next door keep voting incorrectly Dayton will become like Detroit or Chicago.
By Amazed
April 14, 2010 3:44 PM | Link to this
I agree with Parental. Our Democratic leaders have turned this country into entitlement heaven. There is no incentive for people to work and earn more. More earnings means more freebies for welfare leeches. I am sick of it.
By The other Rick
April 14, 2010 3:59 PM | Link to this
The civil war was fought over slavery AND the tariff.
By Alex DeTocqueville
April 14, 2010 4:05 PM | Link to this
We now have a provider class(taxpayers) and recipient class (“clients”). ” A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”+
By oh shut up!
April 14, 2010 10:19 PM | Link to this
i really do hope that the country splits in two, and that all the crazy, annoying whiny right wingers like the nutjobs in this forum go to the new south. It would be a much better country. the new North! A place of love and acceptance of minorities. A place of taking care of each other and having a new South! Please let it happen Mr. Gottleib!!!!
By Lex Luthor was right
April 15, 2010 6:10 AM | Link to this
The lefties are ruining the country. I say, move them all to the Mecca of the libs, California, then put a nice nuke in the San Andreas fault line and chip California off the continent thus producing nice ocean front property in Nevada..
By patriot
April 19, 2010 3:58 PM | Link to this
What Kurt and the other wacko-cons don’t get is that we liberals do love our country. We love Democracy, the Constitution, the Bills of Rights. It’s just hypocrites like Kurt we hate.