Stateside with Charlie Harper (From Banamas New – Tribune 242)
Nancy Pelosi and Tim Ryan are both Democratic members of the US House of Representatives, but they don’t really have much in common beyond that. In fact, Ryan ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Pelosi as House Minority Leader in 2016, before the Democrats swept into control of the House last year. But Ryan and Pelosi do share something now. They are both focused on and worried about Ohio.
Ryan represents a district in eastern Ohio that lies along the Pennsylvania border. It’s home to Youngstown, a decaying rust belt city that has become as emblematic of the deleterious effects of globalization on traditional smokestack American heavy industry as was Lee County (Ft Myers) Florida of the Great Recession that toppled investment banks and threatened to wipe out American retirement accounts just over ten years ago.
Remember that? Every other story about upside down and underwater mortgages seemed to be datelined in or near Ft Myers in southwest Florida, where county authorities had eagerly embraced the pre-recession housing boom and lenders had encouraged people to invest in new inland planned communities like Lehigh Acres. By 2010, you could literally see on TV tumbleweeds blowing down the deserted streets of Lehigh Acres. Empty, abandoned, foreclosed houses were everywhere.
Youngstown is like that. It has become a symbol of a greater phenomenon. Unlike nearby former steel industry giants Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Youngstown and smaller neighboring faded post-industrial cities like Niles and Warren have seen few benefits from a diversifying and differentiated world economy.
These smaller cities have also been unable or unwilling to move to attract health care, IT, finance and other businesses that have helped Cleveland and especially Pittsburgh rebound and progress.
Ryan’s eastern Ohio congressional district had also not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972. Until 2016, that is. Despite the still-strong union ties in most of his district households, Ryan now admits the Democratic party has lost its way with his constituents. Ryan, by the way, is one of the nearly two dozen current Democratic candidates for president.
And even though Youngstown and environs have experienced few of the positive effects of job growth and unemployment decline that Republicans currently boast about, Ryan acknowledges U.S. President Trump retains much of his grip on local voters.
Ryan and other local politicians of both parties told The New York Times that while national Democrats rant on about Trump’s hidden tax returns and corruption, many Youngstown voters don’t seem to care. “I don’t give a damn about Trump’s tax returns,” one said. “The fact is that China has been ripping us off and Trump is hitting them in the face with the tariffs.”
Trump was very much on the minds of Ohio Democrats at their recent big annual state fundraiser, where House Speaker Pelosi gave the keynote address. She tried to lift spirits left sagging after the GOP swept all the top state offices in November.
“We (in the House) will continue to investigate this president and hold him accountable,” Pelosi said. “We will defend our democracy.”
Much of the oratory at the session reportedly focused on court-mandated redrawing the lines in Ohio’s 16 congressional districts which are expected to tilt the balance toward Democrats. It was high-minded and principled.
That won’t likely matter much next year in Tim Ryan’s district. Most voters there have already made up their minds – and most of those still like Trump.