What's the matter with Indiana?
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  Political Geography & Demographics (Moderators: muon2, 15 Down, 35 To Go)
  What's the matter with Indiana?
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Author Topic: What's the matter with Indiana?  (Read 1544 times)
Mr. Illini
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« on: January 24, 2014, 12:22:46 AM »

Something that I have been pondering for awhile and I think is a good discussion/debate piece.

What the heck is up with Indiana politics?

It is a Midwestern state that exhibits a lot of Midwestern characteristics in many non-political cultural aspects. However, it is politically like a deep southern state.

Now, before you point out that Indiana's population center is further south (and smaller) than its neighbors and that this would be the explanation, bear with me.

Even accounting for the fact that Chicago and Cleveland are up north and Indianapolis is down south, rural Indiana has some distinct differences from rural Illinois and Ohio.

First off, the micro-cities in Indiana are all a very dark red (barring Bloomington because of the college town aspect). Fort Wayne is extremely conservative-voting, while micro-urban communities in central and southern Illinois (Carbondale, Champaign-Urbana (even without the college), Peoria) as well as Ohio (Dayton, etc) are liberal voters.

Additionally, the brand of conservatism in Indiana is much more akin to a state from south of the Mason-Dixon line. The KKK's roots can be drawn to Indiana, their Senatorial candidates talk about rape being God's will, they are about to vote for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, etc. These are all things that even without their population centers, Illinois and Ohio Republicans would reject, as they are more moderate than their southern counter-parts.

So, why is this? What's the matter with Indiana?
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Flake
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« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2014, 12:28:21 AM »

Unlike most Midwestern states, where populations came from immigration and the Northeast, people moved to Indiana from places like Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Why? I'm not certain, but it could be a certain prejudice against those 'damn European commie illegals', where they would most likely not want to be near someone such as that.

tl;dr: Indiana's population came from the South, and the rest of the Midwest's population came from Europe and the Northeast.
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2014, 12:34:58 AM »

There's nothing "the matter" with it. It just happens to be a Midwestern state where the conservative areas outvote the liberal ones. Every Midwestern state, except perhaps Michigan, has large swaths of conservative areas in it, they're simply outvoted by other parts of those states. In Indiana that's not the case. It's not as though there's some kind of ideological divide along the Indiana/Illinois border or the Ohio/Indiana border. It's not because Indianapolis is south of Chicago. If anything, the rural parts of Northern Indiana vote more Republican than rural southern Indiana. Northern Indiana is more of an extension of Northwest Ohio than anything else. Ft. Wayne has a lot in common with Lima, Ohio and they vote similarly. The main reason why Dayton, Ohio doesn't vote the same way is because it has a large black population. The white suburbs of Dayton do vote incredibly Republican. There are very conservative parts of the Midwest and they are often quite socially conservative, generally of a somewhat different brand than that of the south, but there are definitely similarities.
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Indy Texas
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« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2014, 02:08:48 AM »

1) It has no major cities. (No, Indianapolis is not a major city.)

2) Judging from the map below, it appears their church attendance is more in line with that of the South and Appalachia than of other Midwestern states.



3) Indiana farmers mainly grow corn, and unlike farmers in other parts of the country, they did not have to contend with (i) the rapid commoditization and price collapse of their crop necessitating government support, as wheat farmers in the Great Plains did, or (ii) the sharecropping system that engendered an almost post-colonial attitude in cotton growers in the South, and (iii) for reasons I don't understand, dairy farmers seem to have always been more liberal/progressive than other kinds of farmers (see Vermont, Minnesota, Wisconsin, parts of Iowa). The absence of those three factors may have led rural Indiana to have a much more "leave me alone" attitude more akin to Appalachia than the civic/progressive attitude of the Upper Midwest or rural New England.
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muon2
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« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2014, 12:40:39 PM »

Southern and Central IL was settled from KY and the mid-Atlantic states much like IN. If Peoria had been the capital of IL with its river connections, it may well have developed into a metro area the size of Indy. However, IL became dominated by the growth of the Chicago region which primarily came from the northeastern states during the 1800s. The differences were so distinct that in teh 1920's it was Chicago that wanted to leave IL whil downstate wanted to keep it, rather than the situation today which is just the reverse. IN only picked up a small amount of that growth pattern in the area by Lake Michigan, and didn't get the Great Lakes/Midland schism to the degree that IL did.
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I Will Not Be Wrong
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« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2014, 04:14:32 PM »

Also, it's funny that in the past four elections, Indiana trended R three times, only D once, in 2008.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2014, 09:23:46 PM »

Something that I have been pondering for awhile and I think is a good discussion/debate piece.

What the heck is up with Indiana politics?

It is a Midwestern state that exhibits a lot of Midwestern characteristics in many non-political cultural aspects. However, it is politically like a deep southern state.

Now, before you point out that Indiana's population center is further south (and smaller) than its neighbors and that this would be the explanation, bear with me.

Even accounting for the fact that Chicago and Cleveland are up north and Indianapolis is down south, rural Indiana has some distinct differences from rural Illinois and Ohio.

First off, the micro-cities in Indiana are all a very dark red (barring Bloomington because of the college town aspect). Fort Wayne is extremely conservative-voting, while micro-urban communities in central and southern Illinois (Carbondale, Champaign-Urbana (even without the college), Peoria) as well as Ohio (Dayton, etc) are liberal voters.

Additionally, the brand of conservatism in Indiana is much more akin to a state from south of the Mason-Dixon line. The KKK's roots can be drawn to Indiana, their Senatorial candidates talk about rape being God's will, they are about to vote for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, etc. These are all things that even without their population centers, Illinois and Ohio Republicans would reject, as they are more moderate than their southern counter-parts.

So, why is this? What's the matter with Indiana?
After the Civil War it was one of the few northern states that voted Democratic.  It is more adjacent to Kentucky than Ohio or Illinois.  From the population centers in Kentucky around Louisville and Lexington you have to back up to get to Ohio.  And it is the tips of Illinois and Kentucky that meet.  Development northward from the Ohio was along the Wabash which takes you back into Indiana, and if you go up the Mississippi, you can as easily go to Missouri.

Indiana missed out on much of the immigration of the turn of the 19th Century, as well as black migration from the South.  Gary is a secondary growth from Chicago and was later.
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DINGO Joe
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« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2014, 11:02:23 PM »

It's smaller, whiter and less ethnic than it's Midwest neighbors.  The KKK and anti-immigration movements were powerful in Indiana and industrialization and unions weren't. 
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Sol
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« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2014, 11:14:32 PM »

I don't know if what OP claims about Southern Illinois being more conservative than Indiana as a whole is true. I remember a thread from a while back where someone calculated that Indiana+Cook County was practically the same as RL Illinois. Sure, Peoria and C-U are left-wing- but so are Bloomington and Lafayette.
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ElectionsGuy
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« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2014, 11:34:46 PM »

Illinois - Cook County =

Romney: 1,639,674 (50.8%)
Obama: 1,530,975 (47.4%)
Others: 59,793 (1.9%)

So its actually votes much like Indiana.
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Flake
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« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2014, 11:46:45 PM »

Indiana + Cook County =

Romney: 1,916,085 (41.2%)
Obama: 2,641,424 (56.9%)
Other: 86,696  (1.9%)

Total: 4,644,205

So can we chop Cook County in half and give it to Illinois and Indiana?
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illegaloperation
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« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2014, 09:42:25 AM »
« Edited: January 28, 2014, 09:46:28 AM by illegaloperation »

Indiana + Cook County =

Romney: 1,916,085 (41.2%)
Obama: 2,641,424 (56.9%)
Other: 86,696  (1.9%)

Total: 4,644,205

So can we chop Cook County in half and give it to Illinois and Indiana?

Mark Kirk would approve this proposal.
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MyRescueKittehRocks
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« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2014, 03:45:50 AM »

As one of the resident Hoosiers , I'd refuse any measure to give any part of Cook County (Chicago) to us. I live right outside one of the micro-cities (Kokomo). Sadly the KKK was heavy in this area but even if they weren't, the conservative politics have been here a long time and aren't going away anytime soon. For the person who said Indianapolis isn't a major city you're sorely mistaken. Where's your proof that it isn't. Indiana is the birthplace of VP's like Virginia is Presidents for a reason.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2014, 08:40:53 PM »

Illinois - Cook County =

Romney: 1,639,674 (50.8%)
Obama: 1,530,975 (47.4%)
Others: 59,793 (1.9%)

So its actually votes much like Indiana.

That's what I figured.  The main difference between Illinois and Indiana is Chicagoland.

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