Below was a posting that I wrote last week when responding to another Freeper.
The Northern Pacific States have Microsoft, Boeing and tourism. The same goes for California. Texas has energy, tourism and shipping. Nevada has gambling. Florida has tourism and great weather; Chicago, the epicenter of finance and marketing. The Eastern seaboard has shipping, fishing, government, tourism … etc.
What does the Midwest have? Good weather year round, hell no! Pretty girls skating down the boardwalk on a beautiful February afternoon, hell no! Movie industry jobs, nope! How about agriculture? That too has been erased.
The problem is that the Midwest made things, but because of globalization those skills are no longer needed. Hence the powers that be are trying to substitute with the insurance, medical and bio-tech fields. Those noble professions still are not providing the stimulus to grow the regions economy. So what does an underemployed populace do? They go to the ballot box and vote themselves a raise. I am in absolute disagreement of this, but it is in effect what is happening. Ohio, PA, IN, IL and New York will become more blue because of the afore mentioned.
Reagan figured this out and by him spending heavily on defense; a lot of those dollars were spent in the Midwest, which garnered him a win in 84. The rest as they say is history.
Remember, all politics are local and people vote their pocketbook.
The recovery that most this nation has experienced has not come to the Midwest and actually has come at the expense of this regions economy. Regretfully, the GOP has over estimated the Midwest Social Conservatives loyalty to the GOP. It may result in the Presidents impeachment, time will tell
You are correct about the Midwest.
Let Ohio, which is suffering, or Indiana, which is suffering, flip over to blue, and the Democrats will hold the White House long enough to get amnesty for 12 million illegals. After that, the Democrats will not lose power for a century, maybe forever.
>>How about agriculture? That too has been erased.
Sounds like you haven't been to the Midwest lately. I can assure you that agriculture is still ubiquitous.
The loss of manufacturing jobs is turning the Midwest bluer and BLUER by the day.
Ohio is almost certainly blue in the next Pres election--a huge loss. Add in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin. (Illinois is already a lost cause.) Indiana (a solid red state) is even turning much less-red, or even blue (ref. the loss of 3 GOP House seats).
As the hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs continues, the Republicans really have their work cut out for them in '08--with the Midwest's turning more to the left every day. That's an awful lot of electoral votes to 'write off'.
I have to add one other thing that those who lose their jobs do--besides voting democratic. They LEAVE THE AREA--making the region EVEN MORE BLUE.