Boston.com / News / Nation / In Amish fields, Republicans reap new crop of voters
Boston.com / News / Nation / In Amish fields, Republicans reap new crop of voters: "In Amish fields, Republicans reap new crop of voters
Bush's emphasis on conservatism draws 'plain' folks
By Evelyn Nieves, Washington Post | January 2, 2005
BIRD-IN-HAND, Pa. -- Early on a pale blue morning, a horse-drawn buggy clopped along a farmland stretch of Route 340. A little Chevy compact came toward it at a Sunday pace.
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From an intersection, a black sport-utility vehicle the size of an Indian elephant barreled up to the buggy's back, passing with a quick jerk that almost clipped the compact -- and the horse's nose.
This is Pennsylvania's Amish country, where the 19th and 21st centuries coexist, commingle, and collide regularly. The Amish may hold fast to their plain ways, rejecting cars, indoor electricity, home phones, and televisions. But contact with the outside world is unavoidable. Malls stand on land where corn once grew, tourists run throughout the village streets, and even the old unspoken rule -- leave the Amish alone -- is gone, left in the dust of the presidential campaign, when Republicans came calling for votes.
The Republicans, true to their pledge to leave no vote unwooed, came to Lancaster County hoping to win over the famously reclusive Old Order Amish -- who shun most modern ways -- along with their slightly less strict brethren, the Mennonites. Democrats laughed at the very idea. The Amish had no use for politics. Were the Republicans that desperate? But the GOP effort, underscored by President Bush's meeting with some Amish families in early July, did the trick.
''Yup, we voted this time,' said an elder Old Order Amish man approached at his quilt shop on Route 340. He had a beard that stragg"
Bush's emphasis on conservatism draws 'plain' folks
By Evelyn Nieves, Washington Post | January 2, 2005
BIRD-IN-HAND, Pa. -- Early on a pale blue morning, a horse-drawn buggy clopped along a farmland stretch of Route 340. A little Chevy compact came toward it at a Sunday pace.
ADVERTISEMENT
From an intersection, a black sport-utility vehicle the size of an Indian elephant barreled up to the buggy's back, passing with a quick jerk that almost clipped the compact -- and the horse's nose.
This is Pennsylvania's Amish country, where the 19th and 21st centuries coexist, commingle, and collide regularly. The Amish may hold fast to their plain ways, rejecting cars, indoor electricity, home phones, and televisions. But contact with the outside world is unavoidable. Malls stand on land where corn once grew, tourists run throughout the village streets, and even the old unspoken rule -- leave the Amish alone -- is gone, left in the dust of the presidential campaign, when Republicans came calling for votes.
The Republicans, true to their pledge to leave no vote unwooed, came to Lancaster County hoping to win over the famously reclusive Old Order Amish -- who shun most modern ways -- along with their slightly less strict brethren, the Mennonites. Democrats laughed at the very idea. The Amish had no use for politics. Were the Republicans that desperate? But the GOP effort, underscored by President Bush's meeting with some Amish families in early July, did the trick.
''Yup, we voted this time,' said an elder Old Order Amish man approached at his quilt shop on Route 340. He had a beard that stragg"
posted by Radon | 10:03 PM
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