Reply #23: Indiana is not one state

[RainDog]

the rural areas of Indiana are a lot like the south.

the urban areas are all democratic. their reps indicate that liberals are, in fact, alive and well in Indiana - they just fight it out with Cato Institute libertarians and religious right fanatics. at the state level, party politics decides and they do not represent the variety of liberal political affiliation that is evident at the city and county levels in democratic parts of the state.

the split in Indiana is indicated at the local levels. Andre and Julia Carson have both represented Indy and both are Af-Am.

bloomington had a female mayor twenty years ago and a hispanic mayor in the near past - without any significant hispanic population to put him in office. bloomington has elected greens as county council members. city council members talk about issues of peak oil and have for years. bloomington has one republican on the city council and he's a moderate. the town has been solid blue for decades.

Forbes ranked bloomington as one of the top five places in the nation to start a business b/c it has an educated populace in a beautiful setting that is the location of one of the most wired universities in the U.S. - with the skill sets that implies-- and had this designation years ago. approx. one-third of the population is comprised of undergrads and grads students. it is a "factory" town and the factor is a University with a student population numbering around 37k-ish.

...and all that said... others in Indiana refer to it as "the people's republic of bloomington." I hear old white men nuts screech about that socialist canada and wish I could smack some sense into the stupid old bastards, but realize the effort would be wasted. even tho bloomington is a nice place to live, Indiana is getting on my last nerve with the people it sends to DC. they're not particularly inspiring - in fact the opposite is true, to me.