On Saturday night I had dinner with some new friends in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania. Clifton Heights is an overwhelmingly white working class community in the heart of Joe Sestak’s district (which is anchored in Delaware County). The place was plastered with Sestak signs. No Republican signs anywhere. No Specter signs. The neighborhood consists of rowhouses that were built for returning veterans of World War Two. Most of the people that live there today are the sons and daughters of those vets. They’re probably properly considered ‘Reagan Democrats’ but there is no sign of any affinity for Republicans today. I don’t know whether to thank George W. Bush or Sestak for that, but that is what I saw.
The Philly suburbs are a complex place. Clifton Heights is not typical. It’s a hybrid. It’s an urban setting in a suburban location. Prior to the war, the suburbs were mainly populated by the very wealthy. It was the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (aka the G.I. Bill) that changed things.
An important provision of the G.I. Bill was low interest, zero down payment home loans for servicemen. This enabled millions of American families to move out of urban apartments and into suburban homes. Prior to the war the suburbs tended to be the homes of the wealthy and upper class.
The G.I. Bill created Clifton Heights. And the veterans who moved there actually wanted to continue to live in rowhouses like the ones they had lived in growing up in Philadelphia. This wasn’t ‘White Flight.’ It was an opportunity for the American Dream. And that is what the community remains today. It’s a kind of limbo for people of average means who want better schools and an opportunity to improve their station in life. Some stay, some move up and out to tonier locations.
There’s no evidence that these people are interested in the Teabaggers or Club for Growth lunatic Pat Toomey. They have no use for Specter. You won’t find signs for any Republicans. But they’re not liberals, either. They’re just hard working folks who are trying to raise their kids and scrape by in a very rough economy. And that’s kind of my point in writing about them. Because it seems like the current political debate that is going on in this country is almost wholly irrelevant to them.
Sestak’s going to clean up in Clifton Heights, but it isn’t because of any policies he advocates. They know him, he’s a vet and they can identify with him, and that’s good enough. They’ll vote for a Republican if they don’t know or identify with the Democrat, but that’s not the case this time.
It’s a kind of humbling reminder that all we political activists can accomplish is to nibble around the edges. Most people never read, let alone are convinced by, our arguments. Sestak is going to do better among more conservative Democrats despite having more liberal positions on the issues and Specter will do well in the suburbs despite a deplorable record on issues most suburbanites care about. Just to make this clear, Specter is targeting rural areas because he’s bleeding support there. He wants those rural voters to know that he opposed the Assault Weapons Ban in the 1990’s. That’s not a message he’d want to send in the suburbs. But voters are confused.
The race is too close to call (.pdf), but it really is a choice between a Democrat and a Republican. And that’s the basis on which I made my decision.