I realize this is probably debatable, but I am posting in GQ in the hopes that there is some generally accepted answer to this question. I’d say “mods, feel free to move this as you see fit,” but they don’t need permission from a mere mortal like me.
So anyway, why is Cincinnati more conservative politically than other comparable cities? I don’t just mean the city proper, which is less conservative, but rather the entire metropolitan area. In yesterday’s election, Hamilton County (where Cincinnati is located) voted for Bush over Kerry, 53% to 47%, and the three surrounding suburban counties in Ohio all went to Bush by margins of at least 30%. The margins of Bush’s victory in these four counties (in number of votes, not percent) add up to slightly more than the margin of his victory in the state. That’s just an example, of course, of the patterns in the region.
Cincinnati is ostensibly not that much different in history, etc. than other cities in parts of the East and Midwest, including the rest of Ohio. Counties containing Ohio’s other main cities went for Kerry (though a couple were close), with generally smaller Bush victories in the suburban counties than in Cincy’s suburban counties. That seems to be the case in most of the older industrial cities of the country, too.
I know I’m much less qualified than an actual person from Cincinnati to answer this, because I’ve only seen Cincinnati from a bus. But Cincinnati is on the border with Kentucky, and so it might be culturally more Southern than Ohio’s other major cities. The answer to your question probably lies in the percentage of people in Cincinnati who consider themselves evangelical Christians, and in figures of church attendance. If it’s higher than it is in other cities in Ohio, that’s your explanation.
Not a Cincinnatian, but I’m guessing that Cincinnati City is relatively diverse politically and ethnically. At least by Midwest standards. When I visited there, I noticed a significant African-American population.
But I believe the suburbs are predominantly white and populated with people who have lived there a long time. A very long time. If everybody starts off conservative, there is no reason to change. It’s not like Cincinnati has seen extremely jarring changes in its demographics or its economy.
I have heared several times that Cincinnati and SW Ohio in general is somewhat Southern, but as a SW Ohio resident, I’ve never bought it. I’ll have to try to find how many evangelical Christians there are in the area, though… maybe I will even be convinced of the Southern quality of the area, depending on what I find. But if it is high, I’ll probably still be asking why it is so.
I’ll have to look that up, too (how long people have lived in one place). There are a lot of new people coming to the suburban areas, though some of them are moving from within the region. Do places with more transient populations tend to be less conservative?
Anyway, off to check the Census website (and others)…
I don’t see how Cincinnati is different from any other city in the northeast.
For example, every single city in New York State is overwhelmingly Democrat and is surrounded by whiter suburbs that are overwhelmingly Republican.
Which way the county as a whole votes is a matter of the balance of population in the central city versus the rest of the county (for New York City, it’s the five counties that comprise the city versus the surrounding counties). But the pattern is exactly the same virtually everywhere. It would be surprising only if Cincinnati were different.
Cincinnati has a very large black population, but its’ white population doesn’t contain the Eastern/ Southern European ethnic voters that make Cleveland (for example) a Democratic city. The large German-American population in Cincinnati, while Democratic in registration, tends to be culturally conservative, resulting in them voting Dem for local offices, but Rep for higher ones.
In addition, the city of Cincinnati itself actually isn’t quite the Republican stronghold (due, largely, to the large black population), but Hamilton County is, due in part to a strong Republican organization, and in part to the fact that the Hamilton County suburbs are for the most part well-off and tend to be culturally conservative- a combination which results in them being strongholds for the Republican part
First, one must consider the geography. Cincinnati lies on the northern side of the Ohio river, near where the Miami Rivers and Licking River enter. The topography is quite hilly, to an slightly more so than on the Kentucky side. Ohio is on the north, Indiana just to the west, and Kentucky to the south. The area was largely settled by Irish and German immigrants who were using the Ohio as a means to travel west. The area is fairly reminiscent of the Rhein river areas north of Mainz, which undoubtedly helped attract German settlers. Two of the early settlers were James Gamble, an Irishman, and William Procter, an Englishman of German descent.
Not mentioned in the P&G site, is that both men were very religious. Procter was a Lutheran minister, and Gamble was the son of a Methodist minister, if my memory serves correctly. They were the embodiment of the protestant work ethic. They worked hard and were incredibly scrupulous. Let’s go momentarily back to geography. The area around Cincinnati grows a lot of corn. But how to get the corn to market? The hills in the area are large and often quite steep. Not easy to get corn around. Unless you feed it to pigs. Hogs were the main commodity in the area. Another nickname, besides the Queen City, is Porkopolis. (Pork is probably the main meat consumed in Germany, far ahead of chicken or beef) So the corn is fed to the hogs, which are marched down to the river for slaughter or sale. The small town was a nexus for the local hog market. This is important to Procter & Gamble, which in it’s early days makes candles and soaps. From the leftover rended fat of the hogs sold in the area. P&G’s products become well known for their quality and value.
Now comes the Civil War. Cincinnati, home to Harriet Beecher Stowe, is a main stop on the Underground Railroad. Cincinnati is a Union city, not large enough and a bit too far west at this point to be terribly strategic, but anyway protected by the fact that the Ohio is large and swift there, and the only to cross at this time is by ferry boat. P&G during the war supplies soap and candles to the Union Army. It’s reputation for honesty and ethics increase as it does not profiteer from the war. It supplies it’s same top quality products at pre-war prices. As P&G grows it’s quickly becoming one of the most important businesses in town. People admire their ethics and hard work. The company is still run by the Procters and Gambles. In 1879 Harley Procter and James Norris Gamble have created Ivory soap, there first major brand. By this time Roebling has built his suspension bridge which joins the Kentucky side with Ohio.
In the late 1800s the government in Cincinnati is like any big city government of the era. Corruption has crept in. In Cincinnati a unique solution is taken. A new party, the Charterites, help to get rid of the boss system. I suspect, though don’t know, that P&G influenced this as well. New immigrants live in an area of town called Over-the-Rhine, due to it’s large German influence. The poor families live atop Mt. Adams, a large hill just to the city’s east. A tram brings workers up and down the hill.
The business’ leaders are either directly or indirectly involved in shaping the community. As more Irish come during the early 1900s the parochial school system, started in the 1800s, begins to take their current shape. It’s still a very strong influence in the community there. Prohibition destroys the thriving community of German brewers. Organized crime in the area takes up shop across the river in Newport, KY. So the city can stay squeaky clean, but you can get booze, gambling and girls just across the bridge.
P&Gs business really takes off in the 1930s and 40s, but throughout this time it has helped to shape the surrounding community. Crisco, Camay, and Tide become huge national brands. Brand Management and the Soap Opera are both born in this era. But a less well known innovation was P&G’s response to the threat of radical unions. With the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act which legalized unions, P&G management realizes that the best way to control unions is to keep the riff-raff out. So they organize the International Chemical Workers union (ICW), and set up this union at their manufacturing sites in Staten Island, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Long Beach. This helps keep out more stronger union elements like the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and Ironworkers Union.
Meanwhile, everyday life in Cincinnati revolves around the neighborhood schools. People identify by what high school, not college they attended. Moeller, Elder and Xavier are the three big schools. The ideal career is to play football for one of these schools, attend one of the three or so local universities, and then move on to a job as a manager in Sales or Marketing for P&G. It’s considered more secure than government work. Neil McElroy, the CEO from 1949-57, leaves P&G to serve as Secretary of Defense under Eisenhower. Throughout the years P&G stays fairly conservative, and as P&G goes so goes Cincinnati. It’s not Cincinnati’s largest employer, but undoubtedly it’s most influential. In the late 1980s the dress code is a choice between gray suit or navy suit for men, with a white shirt and conservative tie.
People from Cincinnati grow up and live their entire lives in the shadow of their parents and grandparents. Each neighborhood is unique, although not all of that different. Places with names like Cheviot, Greenhills, Bond Hill, Price Hill, Delphi, Mt. Auburn, Mt. Adams, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout. You, as a visitor, might not know when you’ve crossed the boundaries. They’re neighborhoods, not towns, for the most part. But the hilly geography has inspired a sort of uniqueness that keeps people there somehow for generations, never to escape. Cincinnatians like it that way; change is generally considered bad or suspicious to them. New ideas regarding culture, what to do or what to eat don’t come easily. There is a friendliness but a bit of xenophobia to the culture there.
I grew up in Cincinnati from a family that is extremely well known and involved in that city. If you have spent a good deal of time there, then you’d probably recognize my last name. I don’t live there anymore, but I think I can explain some things about it.
Cincinnati inner city is very different from Cincinnati suburbs. The suburban Cincinnati environment is very, very conservative and thus overrides a lot of the urban vote. I have several friends from Columbus and I have visited there many times and I have visited Cleveland on more than a few occasions and have friends from there too, and I’ve found both of those cities to be much more diverse than Cincinnati. Most of my friends from grade school and high school and nearly all of my family that remained in Cincinnati is hard core conversative. I was raised conservative too, although I am much more liberal in my beliefs now.
Why is it like this?
Cincinnati is an interesting blend of Midwestern, Southern and Eastern values. Our location on the Mississippi river made us quite an important port city back in the day and the people passing through left their imprints. Our strongest ethnic background is German and most people I know from Cincinnati are part German.
A negative association of the Southern states (true or not) was that of white power and unfortunately, Southern Ohio is not lacking in Nazis. Every Christmas that I’ve remembered, we’ve had Klansmen burning crosses in the square. A barn with a southern flag off the side of a major highway leading out of Cincinnati was reported to be a Klansman ‘office.’ I never bothered to find out if it actually was, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rumors were true.
Finally, most people in Cincinnati (and I lived both in the inner city and the suburbs) are White Christians. These people as a group tend to be very conservative.
As far as church attendance, I was able to find a cite that said in 1992 Gallop polls 35.8% of Protestants attened Church regularly while 36% did in Cincinnati.
As far as Catholics (I believe there are more Catholics than Protestants in Cincy, although I could be mistaken) New Yorkers attended at 44.8%, Chicago at 48.5% and Cincy at a far ahead 59.3%.
Cincinnati.com says"U.S. Census figures show ethnic and racial minorities make up only about 12 percent of the city’s population; the rest are Caucasian, mostly of Appalachian or German extraction."
Hey, you just mentioned the boy’s schools! But that was a nice explanation ShibbOleth!
For those not in the know, all three of those schools are private, Catholic, all-boys schools. Nearly the entire male side of my family went to St. X ('cept for one rebellous Uncle who went to Moeller while his twin brother went to X), and almost all of the female side of that family went to one of the two major girl schools. For the girls, there is Ursuline (yay!), St. Ursula or Mount Notre Dame.
Not that well known as most of your guesses. We just own two construction companies and there are signs with my last name all over the place from the bottom to the top. One of my relatives was a County Commissioner.
Wow, thanks for the abbreviated history of Cincinnati, ShibbOleth! I didn’t know that Mt. Adams was the poor part of town in the old days. (…to pick out just one tidbit)
That article is talking about Hamilton, not Cincinnati.
But anyway, thus far we have:
-Southern influence (including more religiousness)
-Well-established white suburbs
-Somewhat lower diversity
-Affluence of suburbs
-Procter & Gamble
I should make it clear, by the way, that I am from Dayton (if you haven’t noticed my location tag) and have been to Cincinnati often enough, but Dayton is pretty much in a world of its own despite being pretty close to Cincinnati, so I remain ignorant.
I have nothing better to add to this than two good places to get brunch on the weekend. If you’re in Dayton, drive northeast to Yellow Springs and eat at the Gypsy Café – and tell 'em J.R. sent you (seriously!). If you’re in Delaware, slip down to the south side of Columbus and eat at the Starliner Diner. Try the plantain pancakes – yummy!
And yeah, Cincinnati is conservative because it’s really torn between being an Indiana city or a Kentucky city.
Makes sense when you think of it. Who the heck wanted to live on top of a steep hill before cars, indoor plumbing and electricity? Of course without the indoor plumbing living at the bottom of a hill had to be worse!
P&G and Cincinnati continue to be very conservative. I worked for P&G from 2000-2003 and I was asked by co-workers about 25 times if I would like to attend church with them on the weekends.
What really shocked me though, is that when there were elections, the company sent out an email to all cincinnati based employees telling them who the company was endorsing. This struck me as very odd, that my employer should be telling me who to vote for.
The GOP has managed to lock itself in to most of the major county offices for the past 50 years or so through a system of musical chairs. Office holders generally retire, run for higher office, or otherwise move on in the middle of their terms, giving the GOP a chance to appoint another Republican to get a few years of incumbency under his belt. That way, Democrats (who are mostly from the city proper) can only rarely gain sufficient leverage against a sitting opponent to eke out a win.
The local Democrats also contribute to the problem; they’ve got a pretty pitiful history of putting up a decent fight. Nobody ever runs against Sherrif Leis (of The People vs Larry Flynt fame), and usually races for offices like Coroner, Prosecutor, Engineer, etc aren’t contested.
This year was the exception. The incumbent prosecutor got caught up in a sex scandal, and withdrew from the race. Until he backed out, the Democrats hadn’t even fielded a candidate. The result was a write-in race between Joe Deters, a former Prosecutor and the current GOP State Treasurer who just had to fire his chief of staff for dirty fundraising tactics, and a relatively unknown Dem lawyer.
Same deal with Coroner. He woudln’t have even been challenged had there not been a scandal involving an artist taking photos of bodies without family permission under his watch.
We only got a Democrat on the county comission because the Bengals continued to suck after the Reblicans pushed a tax increase to publicly finance their new stadium.
In other words, the GOP has a nice, tight, incestuous little lock on most of the offices in the County. The City itself is more progressive, but still, our Af-Am and gay communities generally don’t get along, there’s a lot of segregation and a healthy dollop of police brutality, and people are generally afraid of change. And proud of it.
