The Albion Fair is your typical rural western Pennsylvania fair. There's loads of carnival games, ranging from Shoot out the Star to Balloon Darts to Ski Ball, and lots of grilled food too - buffalo burgers, bison steaks and the like. Seven barns are packed full of animals brought in from all over western Pennyslvania and eastern Ohio - horses, cows, goats, and what must've been 1,000 rabbits. This is why we went, my wife wanted to see some clydesdales. There's entertainment too. When we were there - perhaps surprisingly - it was a modern pop band, but looking at the schedule of events, it featured the type of entertainment that one might expect.
The borough of Albion is over 98% white with a per capita income of $15,361. The people who travel from the surrounding areas to attend the fair are of similiar demographics as well. Having been to this fair and simliar fairs in that area in the past, nothing was really striking - but a thought came into my head.
These are the people that we're told Barack is struggling with - I wonder exactly why - and I wonder if I can find that out without interjecting myself. We all think we know why - and we're told why on the 24/7 cable news channels - but it's different when you hear things from people in their own casual conversations than questioning them and getting slanted answers.
I strolled through the event for rest of evening trying to look for any political signage or see if there were any political conversations going on (a little nosy, I know).
Anyways, my anecdotes and a few opinions:
- There was a voter registration booth run by 3 teenage girls - looked 15ish to me (maybe they were 18, I dunno). As we were walking by they excitedly asked us if we wanted to sign up to vote, we politely told them we already were. I should've chatted with them and asked how the sign-ups were going, but....
- Most of the talk was issue related, and the issue related talk was entirely economic. The ''Jimmy's working 60 hours down at the shop'' - the ''vehicle needs a new transmission'' - the ''fixing up the house'' type talk.
- The only signage I saw was an older white man, maybe mid 60's, who had an Obama T-shirt underneath his flannel. No McCain shirts or buttons that I saw (although a number of people wearing Red, White, and Blue)
- The most interesting thing to me was this conversation this older group was having - maybe 4 or 5 people in their late 60's. I couldn't hear all of what they were saying, but I got enough to know it was economic. One line stood out to me,
''the Steelworkers endorsed Obama''.
It wasn't said in a positive or negative tone, or even a surprising tone, but a tone that suggested this was a piece of the puzzle she was going to consider before making her vote. And that's what it's about here.
Too many people don't ''get it''. Steelworkers isn't just a clever name. And while steel plants are and have largely disappeared, industrial shops are still what keeps these rural parts here alive.
These are not fun jobs. When I worked in a wielding shop, I'd come home from an 8 hour day covered from head to toe only to clean up and spend 8 more hours of the day loading semis.
When I did that, do you think I gave a rats ass about global warming? About gay marriage? About Sarah Palin? Do you think they do? Would you if you were born and lived in their shoes?
It's the economy stupid.
It's not NAFTA per se. It's not VooDoo economics per se. It's about hard labor should mean something. It's about results. And it's about pride.
You wanna win here? Tell me how you'll get jobs here, keep them here - and remind me you did it before.
Folks, this is not a soapbox moment - I'm guilty as the next of getting caught up in the drama. But it's come time to get our asses in gear.
There is too much at stake.
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It's kinda ironic, as I was leaving work today thinking about writing this diary, the city square in downtown Erie, PA was partially blocked up. It's not too unusual, there's occasionally anti-War rallies and the like that might get a dozen or two people.
But it was a Teamsters rally. And as I was walking buy the first time, they had over 100 people there, some with local candidates, but mostly Teamsters/Obama signs. When I walked back a half hour later, there were 200 people there ... and I thought ...
Yes We Can