Old Country Olga
| 👴 | |
| Era | The Fifties |
|---|---|
| Age | 60-70 |
| Home | Cincinnati, OH |
| Demographic | older ethnic, German-American, small property |
| Lean | small_govt_conservative |
| Race | white |
Olga is a German-American shopkeeper's widow in a Cincinnati parish, living on a small property and a pension. She is an older ethnic Catholic voter who supports Robert Taft rather than Harry Truman, and inflation frightens her more than any Republican policy does.
Who they stand for
Cincinnati is Robert Taft's home city, and its German Catholic parishes are the clearest example of a Catholic community that does not vote Democratic. This community is old-stock and property-owning, and it moved toward the Republicans because of the war against Germany in the 1940s and because of rising prices during the Truman years. This is the Catholic bloc that the Democrats lost first, and it is the one that responded to Eisenhower's 1952 promise of stable prices. Olga's decade is lived on a fixed income. The Korean War brought inflation and price controls. The Social Security amendments of 1950 raised benefits by more than three-quarters and brought millions more workers under coverage, which is why a widow who distrusts every government programme still depends on this one. The Housing Act of 1949 and the building of new expressways began clearing old inner-city neighbourhoods, including Cincinnati's West End. Her anti-Communism comes from the Catholic Church rather than from politics. It was sharpened by the trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty in Hungary in 1949 and by the Hungarian uprising of 1956, and it does not depend on Senator McCarthy.
Playing to them
Olga responds well to a President who is careful with money. She wants prices held steady, the budget balanced, no new borrowing, no new programme announced with a flourish, and a pension cheque that arrives unchanged and without comment. Inflation is the one thing she will not forgive, because her savings and her widow's pension are both fixed in value, so a boom that raises prices feels like a theft to her. She cannot be won over by economic growth, by tax cuts she does not benefit from, or by foreign policy achievements, though respect for the Catholic Church and firmness toward Moscow keep her goodwill. The difficulty is that the balanced budget she demands must not touch Social Security, and a President who cuts it to satisfy her has lost her support instead.
A President who takes the hard-money position that wins Olga's support loses the support of Cannery Carl and Steel City Stan, whose factories lay off workers first in a downturn, and also loses the support of Garment Row Saul. A President who protects the pension Olga depends on loses the support of Banker Prescott, who would rather see it trimmed.
Where they live
The five states where Old Country Olga makes up the largest share of the electorate in the fifties:
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- New York