When
it comes to the Great Lakes states, Illinois has become the Democratic
stronghold, while the other states are the ones that can flip back and forth
between the two major political parties based on the mood of the nation as a
whole.
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| Will we unite Nov. 8? Or remain split by State Line Rd. |
Then,
there’s Indiana – the Hoosier state, our neighbor to the east. The one place in
the Great Lakes region Republicans usually can count on to gain some support in
the Electoral College presidential tally.
BARACK
OBAMA WON the state when he first ran for president in 2008. But the last time
before that a Democrat won the state was in 1964 – the year that Barry
Goldwater showed us how “nuts” he was and lost to Lyndon B. Johnson.
It
may be a key to the line of thinking amongst those Indiana residents who
persist in calling themselves Democrats – mostly those people who live in or
near Indianapolis and Gary.
Is
Donald Trump more nuts than Goldwater to the point where Hillary Clinton’s
Democratic presidential bid could actually take the state? Or is this just an
absurd fantasy by people with too much free time on their hands to concoct
screwy political theories?
It
is a line being speculated upon by those Indiana residents who live close
enough to the Illinois/Indiana border that they’re really part of the Chicago
area – even though some of them like to pretend they’re not.
HILLARY
COULD ACTUALLY win Indiana’s 11 Electoral College votes. That would be a
disaster to the hopes of Donald Trump since there are certain places in the
country he absolutely has to prevail if he’s to have any chance of winning the
Nov. 8 election.
Part
of it is that the Trump camp is too ridiculously absurd to be taken seriously.
While
Democrats supposedly benefit from two other factors – that the state’s
candidate for a U.S. Senate seat is the well-known former governor and senator
Evan Bayh who has been out of politics since 2010 but decided to go for a
comeback this year.
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| Could Chicago influence in Indiana help Hillary |
There’s
also the fact that Gov. Mike Pence gave up his position to be Trump’s vice
presidential running mate. Meaning the new Republican gubernatorial nominee is
Eric Holcomb, the lieutenant governor who himself has only been in that post
for a couple of months when former Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann decided that being
president of a community college in Indiana was more prestigious than being a ‘lite
gov.”
THOSE
FACTORS COULD combine with the “Trump is nuts” line of logic to scare some
Hoosiers into thinking semi-friendly toward the Democratic ticket.
As
one Gary councilwoman, LaVetta Sparks-Wade, said of Trump, “The man has no
filter. He doesn’t seem to have any control over what he says. He doesn’t seem
to be able to control what he does.”
That
is a sentiment common to political observers of all persuasions these days.
Yet
still, I have to admit to being skeptical that Indiana will go for Hillary and
there will be a clean sweep of the Great Lakes states for the Democrats – and not
just because Trump himself is putting efforts into taking Ohio paired up with
Indiana.
HILLARY
WON THE vote in Lake County, Ind., back in the May primary, but Bernie Sanders
took the state among those who wanted to vote Democrat. While more Indiana
residents chose Republican ballots, and used them to give Trump a majority vote
in the GOP primary.
Could
it just be the wishful thinking of people so isolated in Gary, Ind., that they
don’t see the rest of the world? Or could it be the outrage that the Trump
people don’t see because they can’t comprehend the whole world doesn’t share
their Hillary rage?
For
as the aforementioned Sparks-Wade said, “If the people wind up deciding that a
Donald Trump presidency is any good, then we (in society) are in trouble.”
Ultimately,
we’ll get to see if “Illiana” truly comes together on Election Day for the
Democrats. Or was it the same type of wishful thinking that made some people
nearly three decades ago think that Michael Dukakis was cut of presidential
timber?
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