A conservative campus senses a shift (Boston Globe re: Miami Univ OH)

[struggle4progress]

Democrats are hoping to make inroads
By Scott Helman
Globe Staff / October 17, 2008

... Miami, a historically conservative, public university in a deeply conservative region north of Cincinnati .... has long been seen as reflective of the area's Republican leanings ...

"Liberal is a kind of a dirty word around Southwestern Ohio," said Sarah Owens, a 23-year-old botany graduate student and Obama volunteer. "Everyone's expecting this area to go red. Anything we do to put a dent in that, to overturn it a little, is going to be a success" ...

... But in a brief tour of campus, we found many more Obama voters - and more Obama signs - than McCain ones ...

The students working for Obama enjoy the challenge of being at Miami and persuading friends and classmates to join their cause. Often, they say, students here are conservative only because their parents are, and that once on their own they begin challenging long-held assumptions ...

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/10/17/a_conservative_campus_senses_a_shift/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed7

[msongs]

1. only conservatives because their parents are....and thats how religion is spread nt

[Two Americas]

8. and culture

And language and art and tradition and education and compassion and....

[Epiphany4z]

2. I have 2 kids at Miami

both will be voting Obama...and I still have 3 more to send...we will turn that campus blue yet...lmao.

[elleng]

3. They STILL don't sound so smart,

kind of like when I attended!

Sharing this with MU friends!

[jwirr]

4. Miami County, Ohio was once a Quaker haven. What happened to

them? I would not have thought that they would have ever been red.

[elleng]

5. Its HAMILTON County,

if memory serves. Quakers elsewhere, like Antioch?

[jwirr]

6. Don't know about Antioch but a lot of my Quaker ancestors came

from all over Ohio, especially Miami County.

[elleng]

7. Miami County, OH, map:

http://co.miami.oh.us/A55969/mcounty.nsf/All/County+Map

Oxford is in Butler County:

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=17306

[diane in sf]

9. I was an undergrad there and was never a conservative--we had really big anti war rallies during the

70s there. There were a lot of fratorority people--they were notable for doing beer with their acid.


Ah, the good old days...