What is up with Indiana?

[Firebirds01]

They went Republican. All the Old Northwest Territory/Great Lakes states went blue except for the Hoosiers. I am confused on why they consistently go Republican. They generally have the same economics and demographic make up as their Big Ten neighbors. Why do they vote republican?

[d_r]

1. southern indiana is kentuckyana

[RegieRocker]

2. Edumacation?

Car gasoline exhaust fumes?

[freshwest]

3. IDK what the demographics are there now. But many years ago, they had some KKK:

For some states, historians have obtained membership rosters of some local units and matched the names against city directory and local records to create statistical profiles of the membership. Big city newspapers were often hostile and ridiculed Klansmen as ignorant farmers. Detailed analysis from Indiana showed the rural stereotype was false for that state:

Indiana's Klansmen represented a wide cross section of society: they were not disproportionately urban or rural, nor were they significantly more or less likely than other members of society to be from the working class, middle class, or professional ranks. Klansmen were Protestants, of course, but they cannot be described exclusively or even predominantly as fundamentalists. In reality, their religious affiliations mirrored the whole of white Protestant society, including those who did not belong to any church.[90]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKK

As you can see from the link, it's complicated and it was not just racism, but ethnic and religious differences that encouraged the KKK. And other groups not so notable.

We don't know if the same people wholived in Indiana in those days stayed or moved away, if new people have moved in, or if the voters are the children of that generation and did not change their minds. There is some regressive force there by the way they have been voting.

Perhaps someone from Indiana may have a very clear picture of why they are going Republican and what Indiana wants. I can't say and merely posted a link that showed what I remembered.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Most Of Indiana Is Still Rural...

It's more like Kansas. The other states have a strong industrial base. Indiana's industrial area..."the region" near Chicago has vanished...

[VirginiaTarheel]

5. IndianA is quasi-Southern

A milder version of Kentucky

[TroyD]

9. In some ways Kentucky is less conservative

Kentucky voted for Bill Clinton twice.

Indiana didn't vote for Clinton once.

http://www.270towin.com/1996_Election/

[LiberalFighter]

6. Too many bean fields.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

7. They grow 'em mean, here.

Last edited Wed Nov 14, 2012, 06:01 PM - Edit history (1)

I often tell people that the much-ballyhooed "Hoosier Hospitality" is reserved for the Inside People, and it's actually the exception. The default is Hoosier Hostility. You have to prove to most Hoosiers that you are like them in some key way to receive the hospitable treatment. This seems to involve commonality in one or more areas including, but not limited to, religion, political orientation, sexual orientation, or (perhaps to a lesser extent) skin color. In my current southern Indiana community, belonging to the same church seems to be the key. They're tremendously churchy around here.

In my experience, Hoosiers seem more concerned than those from other regions with the possibility that the other person, whoever that may be, might be "getting away with something". They're hung up on punishing people. At the same time, they all seem to be trying to get away with as much as they can, themselves.

I have a theory that the above observations can explain why street signs in many Indiana cities are oriented to make it as hard as possible to identify the street on which you're driving. They're not going to make it easy for you because, after all, if you really belonged here, you'd know where you are. The hostility also manifests in many small, cruel ways. I walk almost everywhere, having given away my car a few years ago. I like it that way. As a pedestrian, however, I often have motorists go out of their ways to shout insults at me, for no evident reason. Once garbage was thrown at me from a moving vehicle.

Yeh, there's a mean streak in Indiana. It makes me sad. I wish I could get the heck out of this crazy state.

[Myrina]

13. As a transplant, I have to agree with everything you said.

Including that I'd like to get the heck out of here, too.

[TroyD]

8. Bill Clinton didn't even win Indiana

Despite winning every other state around it. (eg. Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, etc).

That tells me it is pretty conservative.

[MightyAfrodite]

10. Indiana had it's own voter suppression tactic ...

although it wasn't mentioned too much, if at all, on the national news. This year, there was only one place for early voting - downtown at the city-county building at the clerk's office, as opposed to every other election, which had three early voting sites. It resulted in about 10 percent less voters than in 2008.

[Myrina]

11. Absolutely nothing new under the sun. Did you just start paying attention to us?

Small town, bible thumping, backwards thinking but 'north moving' relatives of hicks.

[workinclasszero]

12. Indiana and the KKK...might have something to do with it...

Indiana's Klan organization reached its peak of power in the following years, when it had 250,000 members, an estimated 30% of native-born white men. By 1925 over half the elected members of the Indiana General Assembly, the Governor of Indiana, and many other high-ranking officials in local and state government were members of the Klan. Politicians had also learned they needed Klan endorsement to win office.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Klan