Mitch Daniels says he believes he has changed Indiana‘s mindset, as his eight-year governorship draws to a close. Daniels‘ two terms were marked by a flood of new initiatives.
He says he believes he has changed Hoosiers‘ expectations for state government, leaving behind a state less resistant to change. Daniels acknowledges some people still question the wisdom of some of those changes.
I'm not sure I agree with his assessment or not. It's true he got a lot of changes through a normally hidebound General Assembly, and some of them met with less reistance than might have been expected. But that's not the same as a long-term change in Hoosiers' attitudes about change. We'll have to wait and see, for one thing, if Mike Pence is as aggressive (and as successful) about making changes as Daniels was. If so, we might see the cumulative effect of continued activism. If not, we may see that our newfound tolerance of change is just one more wave in an endless series of political cycles. Tides come in, and they go out.
I suspect we'll see a reversion to old attitudes. Consrvatism isn't really a phiolosophy or a political belief in Indiana. It's a part of who we are. Change? Eeeeu.
