Email From Rural Ohio

04 Mar 2008 09:48 pm

A reader writes:

You state that it's the white women who are turning the tide for Clinton in Ohio, but there is another group that the national media seem to miss in their calcualtions within this state: the good ol' boys down in the Southeast quadrant of the state that borders West Virginia. It's very rural, with no major cities, lots of farmland, a National Forest, and not much else. It hasn't thrived since the coal mines left and the industrial plants dried up.

I live in this southeatern Ohio backwater and can tell you that racism is alive and well.

We are basically a subset of Mississippi, believe it or not, without the racial makeup. It has a high evangelical population, and is home to uber-preacher Rob Parsley. Only the true blue county of Athens, home of liberal arts Ohio University, lacks the racial divide and hard core conservative outlook. Look on any electoral map, and the county is an island of blue in a sea of red. I always knew Obama would have a hard sell in my area of the state, with its Nascar-lovin', deer-huntin', Ford drivin' rednecks. (and I live here, so I'm allowed to say it!)

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