Why is Indiana a Republican State?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I have a lot of knowledge here, but my steam has been taken by others who posted earlier.

I'm the only active member of this forum (sorry JCL ) who lives in southern Indiana. Southern Indiana is not part of the Rust Belt. I consider Southern Indiana to begin a little above I-70.

In my neck of the words, we'll vote Democratic often at state and local levels, much like Kentucky. But we are very reliable to the GOP in national elections.

Even here, unions are pretty strong, but what gets people going is that they're evangelicals, aka, they're big on social issues. Issues like gay marriage and abortion largely keep IN in the GOP column. Honestly, outside of Marion County (which isn't too Democratic), and up around Chicago (which I honestly don't consider part of Indiana, Indiana is pretty much a bunch of farmers.

As to Obama - he only won in 2008 because he spent money here and McCain hardly did. Obama also visited the state; McCain didn't. I promise you, had McPalin made a couple stops here, he would have won it.

I would agree, but it's not a "Republican state", it just leans that way.  Kentucky and West Virginia tend to be Republican in presidential elections but actually more Democratic at the statewide level, from what I've seen.  I guess Indiana just tends to be more rural.  And remember, there are a lot of swing states in the Upper Midwest where unions are strong, too.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I heard that its basically part of the "Butternut" reigon, where Southerners have migrated across the Ohio to work in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania....and probably Indiana is really white, too...its where the KKK formed when it was basically the Tea Party of the 1920s which helped push through Prohibition and  3 Conservative Presidents, back to back.

You mean where the KKK re-formed, don't you?  You realize what a hackish post this is, trying to portray all whites as racist and tying conservatives and Tea Partiers to the KKK.
The KKK was actually founded in the South during Reconstriction as the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party.  While a large number of Northern Republicans especially in Indiana, joined the Klan in the 1920s, it remained a mostly Democratic organization.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

and it wasn't just about racism, either...it was basically part of the bigger authoritarian lean of the 1920s...you know, Prohibition, Eugenics. All the fun stuff that right-wing social engineering has brought us.  

This is correct, but actually parts of that were considered 'progressive' at the time.

Exactly.  Haven't you ever heard about how active Margaret Sanger was with the progressive movement?  She was also the founder of Planned Parenthood, which, last time I checked, wasn't really into "right-wing social engineering."  Prohibition was also part of the progressive movement.  It may be considered right-wing now, but it was liberal for that time.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Well, the Klan was, from my knowledge, against that...but they were also very anti-labor. Not only were they violently culturally conservative, but class conservatives as well.

They were certainly some of the conservatives at that time.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Indiana is very Republican, but it's not necessarily "conservative" in the way the Tea Party is. The Indiana GOP may have shot themselves in the foot by nominating a Tea Party extremist over a highly respected longtime Senator.

I agree with everythnt you've said, except that I'm a Republican and don't think Indiana is very strongly Republican.  It just leans that way.