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Go Home The Angry Ohioan

JONATHAN CHAIT SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

The Angry Ohioan

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

I am constantly annoyed by news reports that cast Ohio as a bellwether state. It's not a bellwether. It's Ohio, and to use it as a stand-in for America is an insult to a great nation.

Today's New York Times reports:

Ohioans are more angry with the goings-on in Washington than are Americans on the whole. And they aren’t much more pleased with the way things are going in their home state, according to a poll released Tuesday by The New York Times and CBS News.

Three-quarters of Ohioans said they were dissatisfied (47 percent) or angry (29 percent) with the way things are going in Washington. Fewer said they were satisfied (18 percent) or enthusiastic (3 percent). When the same question was asked earlier this month in a nationwide Times/CBS News poll, the public showed less anger than respondents in Ohio did. Just 20 percent of Americans nationwide said they were angry and 53 percent said they were dissatisfied with Washington.

My theory is that they're angry because they live in Ohio.

 

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12 comments

Anyone ever tell you that you take college rivalries way, way, way too seriously?

- ulexamp

September 28, 2010 at 4:50pm

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I have stayed quiet long enough, sir, while you stand around and insult the great state of Ohio. Granted, I don't live there, and never have, but I've had two girlfriends from that locale, and they are kind and lovely people. Also, I stopped in a bar in Toledo once after a long, long drive and had a very nice evening involving the specialty of the house, cheesy chicken chunks, and a laminated map a friendly patron brought over. This is not a state brimming over with an inner awfulness. Also, Texas is obviously the worst state ever, unless you simply consider it an insult to humanity rather than an actual state, in which case that honor falls to Delaware (a point that this very magazine has made with an excellent article, entitled Rogue State). And if Delaware were to mysteriously fall into the sea (not that I'm saying I've thought about it repeatedly over a period of years), South Dakota is still more than terrible enough to pick up the slack. It's a state dedicated to mediocrity and deception, filled with disappointing landmarks, residents determined to trap you into visiting the disappointing landmarks even if that involves telling you that the best way to get to Minnesota is to drive west, and gave us Tom Daschle. If that isn't worse than anything Ohio ever did, I don't know what kind of cocaine-influenced criteria are at work here.

- janus

September 28, 2010 at 5:06pm

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OK, now while New Jersey might not be the worst state in the Union, hands down New Jerseyans are the worst people. Ohio is ugly and boring and way too flat but the people are nice.

- blackton

September 28, 2010 at 5:16pm

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Posts about Ohio: 9 Posts about Peretz: 0

- benberger

September 28, 2010 at 5:25pm

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I was thinking along the lines you were, ulex, as I was reading this post. It has happened at the other end, too. I remember reading forever ago about Woody Hayes, who was coming back from a game in Michigan. He was with an assistant coach, I believe, who was driving. Their car was close to running out of gas and the driver wanted to stop to fill up. But they were still in Michigan and Hayes ordered him to keep driving until they had crossed the state line into Ohio before he would allow the driver to stop at a gas station.

- liberal reformer

September 28, 2010 at 5:25pm

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What do you expect? It is a state that has lost massive amounts of manufacturing jobs, is facing large deficits, and seen most of it's major metro areas decline precipitously. The only way they can console themselves is to realize that at least they're not Michigan.

- Attrill

September 28, 2010 at 5:30pm

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Texas, Delaware, South Dakota, Ohio? Have none of you ever been to freakin' Nevada? There are two things in Nevada: Vegas, and nothing else. Vegas speaks for itself as a paean to crass, false, trashy, .... insert you favorite low rent adjective. And nothing else is .... nothing. Well, ok, there is Taho, but that's really a subdivision of California, right?

- IowaBeauty

September 28, 2010 at 6:09pm

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Texas: the only country in modern history that having fought and won a war for independence, had sufficiently deep insecurity about themselves that they had to become a mere administrative unit of a real nation in order to feel good about themselves. They've been struttin' their stuff ever since to make sure we don't miss the point that they are REAL. Reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw once that my daughter wanted to paste on all the F-350s in the Walmart parking lot "If yours were as small as mine, you'd compensate by driving one of these too."

- IowaBeauty

September 28, 2010 at 6:13pm

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Wait just a dang minute. I was not only born in Ohio, I even returned and spent 11 adult years there before moving to Arizona (spousal career move). Arizona is far, far, far worse than Ohio. Even if Kasich is elected governor, he at least is unlikely to freeze up like Jan Brewer (for whose unleashing on us no Arizona Democrat will ever forgive Janet Napolitano). Ohio hasn't passed a law allowing firearms made in Arizona that don't meet federal safety standards to be sold in the Grand Canyon State. Ohio hasn't passed a law banning the manufacture of animal-human hybrids. I could go on, but then I'd have to start to cry....

- drwohl

September 28, 2010 at 6:24pm

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Attrill beat me to it - Ohio is not Michigan. In New York, we still think it could be worse - we could be California. I assume California thinks it could be worse - they could be Mexico. In 2005, The Economist reported Ohio as "The slice of the mid-west [that] contains a bit of everything American" giving birth to the echo that Ohio is a bellwether for American politics. Ohio really is too flat. I remember a business trip where the directions said to "turn after the hill", and it was twenty miles later when I realized a hill in Ohio is not road bump in New York. Nice people who deserve a way out of economic decline. Maybe Ohio can get Mitch Daniels to move...

- K2K

September 28, 2010 at 6:46pm

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Obviously no tnr blogger above has ever been to NY, WVa, or Idaho. If so, the debate would be how to break the tie b/w those three worst states.

- drofnats1

September 28, 2010 at 8:04pm

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liberal reformer: Yep, that's the famous story. Also, Hayes went for two after a TD during a rout of Michigan. When asked why he went for two, he said, "Because I couldn't go for three." Although that story has been questioned. Ohio St. fans are also known to sing "We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan!" during the game. But that's a *sports chant,* not a philosophy to live your life by. Ah well. Obsessing about the Ohio St-Michigan rivalry is a cute and quaint little tradition, like putting away your white clothes after Labor Day or watching the groundhog on Groundhog Day. Truth is, there have been more presidential elections in the past ten years than Michigan victories over Ohio State.

- ulexamp

September 28, 2010 at 10:37pm

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