Ohio gets a ton of national mention when its turns to Presidential politics. If Ohio had a dollar for every time one of those national mentions included the term "Rust Belt," we'd be able to reduce our state's income tax rates even more than it has been reduced in recent years.
Do you think most journalists know, or care to know, that the term "Rust Belt" is a pejorative? Pejorative is defined by Dictionary.com as an adjective "having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect."
Frankly, the term is a put down on every man, woman, and child who lives in Ohio and the Midwest. Mere mention of it, takes our state's marketing brand down a notch. It's downright insulting.
One way Ohio could gain from the national spotlight from being a "Swing State" a bit better than past years is if the Presidential campaigns helped cajole the national press into removing the negative "R" term from their collective vocabulary.
I wrote about other terms to use other than Rust Belt and I sure hope a few more writers find their way to a piece like this before they publish their next piece about Ohio.
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This is one in a series on Life In A Swing State aimed at pushing Ohio's Swing State status in the state's favor just a little bit.
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