Flyover Country

I just got back from a gaming convention in central Pennsylvania, about a five hour drive from New York City.

Lancaster is flyover country. Literally. You can take a plane to Harrisburg - the state capital - but it’s a flight that costs just over $400 one-way from my local airport, and the trip (which includes a stop at another airport) takes just under three and a half hours.

Lancaster is in Pennsylvania Dutch country - its thriving summer resort program counts on that to draw tourists - but if you drive around a bit and spend some time talking to locals, you get the feeling that flyover really means fly out.

You look around, imagine growing up on the beautiful farms or in the quaint local hamlets nearby, and wonder just where you could find a job. Any job. The amusement parks are seasonal, the shopping areas - the same big discount stores and strip malls you find all across the country - don’t pay enough to buy a house in those quaint hamlets, and the only real signs of construction work seem to be the big public works projects that are expanding roads so more people can get in and out of Lancaster.

I talked to one girl who was working at a dead-end job at the motel where I was staying for my gaming convention. She told me about her part-time job, the one she needs because she doesn’t make enough money serving the tourists.

You can understand why Hillary’s campaign slogan - remember “It’s her turn” - doesn’t resonate in Lancaster. Her turn to do what? Let’s take turns doing the same thing? More of the same?

The local newspaper had a story about a batch of new businesses that had gotten state permission to start selling marijuana, and another story about how the local school board had reached a closed-door deal with its superintendent to leave early, and may lose state aid as a consequence. The school board’s response was that everything was just fine, according to a local editorial.

It reminded me of other stops I have made over the years in small towns just off the Interstate, little places with fast food restaurants and beautiful scenery, where a steady flow of travelers come and go and drop off some money as they pass through.

In good weather, and in the busy seasons, it’s enough to let the owners get through the slow times. But you can’t keep a big staff all year long if you don’t have customers all year long, which explains why so many of the jobs are taken by high school kids or by retirees.

Small stores close. Kids go away to school or the Army and often don’t come back. Many of the local Amish families long ago sold their farms and moved to much cheaper land in upstate New York. You don’t see nearly as many horse-drawn wagons on the road, which is good for traffic.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned in flyover country. Someone who comes along and promises to change things is someone you can vote for, because more of the same isn’t going to help you a lot. 

But don’t tell people in flyover country that Congress hasn’t passed a public works bill, or changed health care or balanced the budget. It’s just “blah-blah-blah” when nothing really happens. Politicians can keep all the bright shiny balls they want floating in the air, but in a couple of years - when they run for office again - flyover country will still be right where it is now.

And, the Republican party will be just more of the same. Kind of like the Democrats were.