Bush Legacy Tour

CINCINNATI, OH-. Most people from Cincinnati are familiar with a quote from Mark Twain that goes something like, “When then end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it is always ten years behind the times.”  Hailing from the Queen City, I would argue that not all aspects of the city are behind the times, which is somewhat unfortunate given the current state of things. Contrary to Mark Twain’s assertion of the Cincinnati delay, ten years ago Cincinnatians found themselves in a much better place with a much stronger economy, no war in Iraq, affordable gas prices, and much more affordable healthcare.

Our stop in front of the Tyler Davidson Fountain (yes, the WKRP one) brought out a lot of people who are sick of conservative politics as usual. Although, the city is often thought of as a bastion of conservatism we had a few people  who came through the bus said they voted for Bush twice but will not vote for him again via McCain, and a lot more who had never supported him in the first place.

We rolled up to Fountain Square for a time slot of 2-3pm. We chose this spot, not only for its central location but for the fact that it is a stone’s throw from the offices of one Steve Chabot a longtime Congressman representing most of the city.  Steve Chabot has not had to answer to the voters of Cincinnati all that much over the past decade or so.  His seat has remained incredibly safe. It has been years since he had a real race on his hands to secure him another two years.  Andy, one of his constituents, put it this way, “That guy is so well connected he doesn’t even need to really run a campaign. All he does is make one phone call and all of his supporters dust off their lawn signs from two years ago and he is in again.” This year Representative Chabot is actually campaigning and having to explain his many votes that fall perfectly in line with the Bush agenda. Representative Chabot has voted with Bush’s policies 82% of the time over the last eight years on everything from keeping the troops in Iraq, to tax cuts for the wealthy, to voting against raising the minimum wage.

Chabot has some conservative company in the city with Rep. Jean Schmidt right behind him. She has also voted 82% of the time with Bush’s policies.  “Mean Jean” Schmidt as she is often referred to, has been one of Bush’s strongest supporters during her short time in the House.  She is an avid supporter of the Iraq War to the extent that she angrily opposed decorated Vietnam Veteran Jim Murtha on the floor of the house for his opposition to it, calling him a coward.  Thankfully, Jean eventually apologized for the remarks but her support for the war that is estimated to cost Cincinnatians $615.6 million, has remained steadfast.  Rep. Schmidt makes no qualms about supporting Bush and has stated that she is “proud” of being associated with Bush and even included a photo of the two together in her campaign literature in 2005.

The content of the bus was a stark reminder for a lot of the people who came through that we were in fact better off 10 years ago. It also served a dual purpose of being an air-conditioned sanctuary in a city that was hard hit by an Ike-related storm. Upon our visit at least 15-20% of the city was still without power.  Many of the cleanup crews were in Texas helping out with the areas directly hit. While so much of the city was dealing with the cleanup of their yards, their roof, and their spoiled food; we have all only begun to clean up the mess of the last eight years.