Feature photo by SFAntti. Photo above by capitan-patata.
“Main Street America” is nothing more than a useful talking point for the political season.
Within a week of each other, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain swooped into the quiet Wisconsin town of La Crosse. Both presidential candidates seem bent upon taking their message to “Main Street” and working for “Joe”—whether the “six pack”, “plumber”, or “Schmoe” variety.
La Crosse is a swing town in a swing county in a swing state. None of the politics here are cut-and-dry. The 2004 election results showed only 53.38% of the populace of La Crosse County voting in favor of Kerry—neighboring Monroe County gave 53.06% to Bush. Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes would ultimately fall to Kerry by a margin of less than 1%.
It certainly doesn’t help that this relatively small city of 58,000 gets injected with over 18,000 students reporting to class at three different post-secondary institutions; meanwhile in the public schools, “Rifle Deer Hunting” is considered an excusable absence.
The initial impression is that capturing these hearts and minds is an uphill battle in both directions.
Photo by themarkpike.
A Line Drawn in the Topsoil
The journey to either rally is itself a metaphor in the great divide. Amongst the hills and coulees, cows and horses graze alongside signs of ardent support for a Republican President. Some couldn’t even wait for a proper sign from the Republican Party headquarters—“McCain - Palin” is stenciled onto a blue-painted piece of plywood.
In the smaller outlying cities, the waters are muddier. In the quiet town of West Salem, the lawn signs alternate with almost perfect one-to-one regularity.
By the time you reach the peoples Co-Op in downtown La Crosse, the Dodge Rams have turned to Subaru Outbacks, the bucolic has turned modern, and the politics seem to have taken a decidedly sharp turn left.
And this is only 20 miles. One can only imagine how many times the landscape changes in the 200 miles from La Crosse to Milwaukee.
Main Street, LaCrosse
I asked the Chairs of the local Democrat and Republican parties what was important to the area voter and how each candidate addressed those issues in their respective rallies. The Republican Party Chairman Tom Lynch was the only one to attempt an answer.
“McCain addressed the National Security issues and the Energy Independence issues,” says Lynch, “Obama failed to assure the rural voter on either issue.”
It’s difficult to say whether such an assessment is a careful statistical analysis, an educated guess, or simple partisan rhetoric. It’s even harder to get a clean answer from a very politically guarded local populace.
The local press doesn’t help. The comment section after the articles that announcing the candidates’ arrivals in the La Crosse Tribune reads like a truck stop bathroom wall gone political.
“You won’t be able to buy a gun if Obama gets into office!” says a man identifying himself only as “GoodListener.”
A man calling himself “PrivateSectorDoesItBetter” quotes revelations 1:8, after accusing democrats of being inflexible in their destructive views of “…their messiah, Obama.”
The Sparta Herald, the newspaper of a nearby town of over 8,000, recently featured two heated letters to the editor regarding Obama and his stance on gun control. On the evening news, a local political science professor suggested that Obama failed to touch upon farm subsidies, an issue of importance to Wisconsinites.
A block away from the site of both rallies is the actual road labeled “Main Street” in La Crosse. In addition to the Post office, the street is home to an upscale fashion boutique, the 6-story U.S. Bank building, the headquarters of the local radio station, a Japanese steak house, and a gay bar; as eclectic a mix as any you’ll find on, say, Wall Street.
It’s certainly not the image of gun-toting farmers that is often conjured when we think of the Midwest.
I’m hoping that by attending these rallies and listening to how the candidates attempt to make their case to the public that I can gain some kind of insight into what the generalized “Main Street American” truly represents.
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