Ithaca and the Presidency: We were once a swing town in a swing state

It is a presidential election year, but do not expect that candidates will come a-wooing to Ithaca this fall. For decades, ours has been a reliably Democratic city in a reliably Democratic state.... The joke has always been that Ithaca is “centrally isolated.” We are not really on the way to anywhere else, and candidates in the heat of battle put their time and money into swing communities in swing counties in swing states. It was not always so, though, and Ithaca has seen its share of supplicants over the years.

Presidential election campaigning—as we have known it since the beginning of the 20th century—was not the norm for much of American history....It was not until the late 1800s that there was a railroad infrastructure.... More important than that though, were the social conventions of the times. A candidate appearing on his own behalf would have been considered unseemly before the turn of the 20th century. Tradition held that a candidate should be above the fray, ideally letting others do the dirty work of glad-handing and dealmaking.

This began to change with William Jennings Bryan’s 18,000-mile, 52-day stumping tour in 1896, during his first bid as the Democratic candidate for president.....popularized as the first big whistle-stop tour, Bryan was able to reach thousands of people by train,....in as many as twenty towns in a day. Though he didn’t win, the fact that personal appearances could resonate with voters was a lesson not lost on either party.

It was a turning point in presidential politics, and ever after candidates have waded into the fray without reservation. The change was apparent in the very next presidential election year, 1900, when, in the weeks before the election, both Republican vice presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt and Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan visited Ithaca.

(continued)....It was a turning point in presidential politics, and ever after candidates have waded into the fray without reservation. The change was apparent in the very next presidential election year, 1900, when, in the weeks before the election, both Republican vice presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt and Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan visited Ithaca.

This having been a Republican city in those days, the more enthusiastic welcome was reserved for Roosevelt’s visit on Oct. 29, just eight days before the election. He arrived at the East Ithaca Station...to a boisterous welcome. Carriages from all over the county began arriving to await his train as early as 7 a.m. that day. He arrived at 1 p.m. Roosevelt and his entourage traveled by streetcar from the station down the hill........ Progress slowed to a crawl, as a crowd of at least 10,000 packed the road... all the way down to the hotel............ (read the rest at the link)

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The author's historical review of presidential campaigns in Ithaca include photographs of Teddy Roosevelt-1900, Adlai Stevenson-1952, and Richard Nixon-1956. During the 1950's, the cost of presidential fundraiser dinner was only ten bucks.

Democrats have won this city and the state of New York in every presidential race since 1988. Here is the 2016 NY state composition of voters: republican voters -2.7 million; democrats 5.6 million. A republican win in NY in the general election would require millions of the independent voters to vote republican in order to turn it red. In November, there is one man that could overturn the democrat stranglehold of New York, and that man is --Donald Trump.

It must be the colleges there that make this city so liberal. I’m sure Bernie will do very well there.

Ithaca aside, perhaps all that NY pride and the craving to see one of their own native successes could put Trump in the WH. It could be a time where Dems cross over and folks who never voted line up to vote so they can ‘join the bandwagon’ and boast that they backed the winner.....

This assumes that most NY’ers realize the Clintons as carpetbaggers.

Colleges do this, unfortunately, to far too many towns. Decades ago, they used to be sane or in the political mainstream. Now they’re as far out of whack with reality as to make true-believers in Cuba and North Korea blush with embarrassment. Funny thing is when you have a Communist revolution, these true believers have to be the first ones to be executed, because they’re the most deranged and dangerous. Why they’re called “useful idiots.”

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