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A blue state’s road to red (West Virginia, article in WaPo)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2013/10/26/a-blue-states-road-to-red/?wprss&google_editors_picks=true&clsrdWest Virginia exists as a state because it broke away from Virginia in 1863 and refused to join the confederacy. From Franklin D. Roosevelt’s era until the 2000 election, it was among the most reliably Democratic states, one of only six that Jimmy Carter carried in 1980, and 10 that Michael S. Dukakis won in 1988.
But in the past decade or so, “West Virginia has realigned politically with the Deep South, at least in presidential elections,” historian John Alexander Williams said in a June lecture in Charleston marking the state’s 150th anniversary. “Between the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, a time when voters were trending strongly Democratic in other parts of the nation, 366 of official Appalachia’s 410 counties increased their Republican share of presidential votes.”
In 2012, that trendline cut more deeply. Obama lost the seven West Virginia counties he had carried in 2008. It marked the first time that a major party’s presidential candidate suffered a 55-county shutout.
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theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Thanks for an article well worth reading in its entirety.
Over the years I have commented on the signposts pointing in this direction and I am sad to say that no amount of forewarning could have stopped this train, for all the things I've posted about over and over still hold true. Admittedly, I finally gave up posting about what was going on in Appalachia because so few people seemed to care and that is particularly true in Washington.
I'm not going to write another editorial about what's going on in Appalachia and the failure of the Democratic Party to make even token gestures of sincere caring about its people, rather than the lofty and predictable lip-service doled out each election cycle. And yes, I'm criticizing my own party because there was a time when it DID care.
I won't go on but instead offer here two threads from my journal, one from 2004 and another from 2008. Neither mustered any response and perhaps the only reaction now will be one of indignation. But you can't say there weren't some of us who didn't see this coming.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/24
Some simple things first, then some more complex
Posted by theHandpuppet in General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009)
Fri Oct 22nd 2004, 09:13 AM
First of all, its amazing to me just how quickly how so many of those who would describe themselves as "progressives" turn to angry insults and stereotyping when discussing the Appalachian vote. (Not directing that remark at you, BTW.) We as Dems have to kick this kind of blind bigotry right out of our thinking and our vocabulary (and that includes pics of "toothless hillbillies" which accompany so many posts. We're not going to reach ANYONE with such a display of disrespect).
Secondly, you don't have to share the concerns or the "live the lifestyle" (whatever that means) of people in WV to truly understand and address their concerns. I waited through three debates to hear one or both of the candidates address some particular concern that would resonate particularly with West Virginians. Guess who did? Yes, believe it or not it was GEORGE BUSH, with his stated commitment to the development of "clean coal technologies". Doesn't matter whether or not the commitment was real -- the fact that he even verbalized it put him front and center in the very living rooms of the people of WV in recognizing their concerns in front of a national audience! I couldn't BELIEVE Kerry let him grab that issue and then failed to follow up.
Further, I would fervently hope that President Kerry -- like Robert Kennedy did long ago -- will take up the banner of the poor and disenfranchised in rural America, so we may begin to heal the wounds in this country. Develop programs that will encourage more physicians to practice in rural America, as well as draw our best teachers. Initiate programs that offer Appalachian kids the opportunity to go to college without having to fight on the front lines to earn a dollar (WV disproportionately supplies the US with military recruits). Stop the flight of young people from Appalachia by creating a NEW industry to supplement the old -- companies that are the forefront of alternative energy technologies -- and let the people of West Virginia and Kentucky share in the jobs that can be created by the development of clean coal technologies. Revitalize the railroad industry in this nation, an industry that once provided many a family in Appalachia with their best hope of a well-paying job with benefits. That's just for starters.
Finally, about the crafty way the Repukes have won the media war with so many of these folks.... we know they're all sound byte, which brings up that old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words". President Kerry should, as one of his first plans of office, schedule a nice, long train trip through Appalachia for his Secretaries of Education, of HHS, Labor, Commerce, of the Interior and the Vice President himself. We're not talking the Orient Express here, but the same kind of grimy train I often took with my father through the back mountains down to places like Beckley and Bluefield. Each of our esteemed Secretaries will be provided with a lunch of white bread and government surplus cheese, as well as one yellow legal pad and a #2 pencil for taking notes. Then they can take a GOOD, LONG HARD LOOK at what it's truly like to be poor and despised and forgotten in America. They will stop the train at places that have no station and talk to REAL people. Sit at their tables, break bread with them. If President Kerry's "Train of Healing" is scheduled for summer, make sure the train has no AC or, if wintertime, that it has no heat. Let it sit on the tracks for a few days with no way out and nowhere to go. Cut off their cell phones to boot, and let them get a real feel for what it's like to suffocate under the weight of isolation. At every stop each of the esteemed Secretaries shall be required to invite one Appalachian family to spend a week with them, in their own tasteful homes, in Washington DC -- all expenses paid. Let these people tell their own stories in front of an apathetic nation.
For upon their return, President Kerry will require the reports of his Secretaries be submitted to an independent commission to be immediately convened upon completion of the "Healing Train Tour". For his part, the President should agree to implement changes to existing programs and/or creation of new programs that will provide the kind of jobs, education and basic health care that will allow these very proud folks the chance to lift themselves up and take part once again in this society. Make the American dream real for them again -- and make it now.
Anyway, that's all I would have to say to our future President (as well as my fellow Dems) on that subject, for what it's worth. Unlike too many others here in WV, I'm either a hopeless optimist or perhaps hopelessly naive to still believe these words will not fall on deaf ears.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/93
Respectfully...
Posted by theHandpuppet in General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009)
Wed May 14th 2008, 11:12 AM
Do you know what message I, as a working-class West Virginian, got from Obama this primary season? That we don't count. That he can't be bothered. That he'll jump like a frog from a hot rock to the defense of mine owners and outdated laws that rape the land and kill its people, but the people IN the mines and who live near the poisoned creeks are an expendable demographic. Beneath his royal contempt. The "untouchables".
You might say that's an overreaction or even a knee-jerk reaction but I can tell you there are plenty of folks here who share it. When Mr. Obama wins the nod for the nomination and expects West Virginians will fall in line after he bestows his righteous forgiveness upon us, don't be surprised if they turn away. We learned a long time ago that those who curry favor for us only for November will forget us in December. (And that's been true ever since RFK was assassinated.) I think Obama missed a golden opportunity by ignoring West Virginia, if only to send a message that he really does give a damn, votes or not. This election is not about a machine, or delegate counts or demographics -- it's about human beings. It's about showing and proving that "hope" is more than a word.
I don't mean to stray too much from the thread topic but I also believe this is probably one of the very few threads on GDP where I can honestly express my feelings on this subject among both Clinton and Obama supporters who care and who are willing to listen. You will have to pardon me if I come off a bit raw right now -- after hearing an entire state dismissed here on this forum as inbred morons, trailer trash, ignorant racist banjo-picking outhouse dwellers? This is not the Democratic Party of compassion which, as a young idealist, I grew to know and love.
Very soon there will be another primary vote in Kentucky. As a woman whose father was born on Raccoon Creek in Pike County, KY and still has family down there, I am bracing myself for the barrage of bilious invectives and stereotypes that will be hurled at my people when the vote does not go as they wish. If only they, like some of you here, would take even a cursory interest in the land, its history and people, they might give pause before they hit the send button.
I would like to leave y'all with THIS message, one I embraced as a young Democratic activist but which serves as a good reminder to us -- and particularly to the people of Appalachia -- what true hope and democratic ideals once meant.
http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/a...
(excerpts)
While the Tet Offensive raged in Vietnam in February 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was on the mountain roads of southeastern Kentucky, shaking hands and setting fire to hearts from Vortex to Prestonsburg. Conducted as part of a Senate Subcommittee on Manpower, Employment and Poverty examination of War on Poverty practices, RFK’s Appalachian tour occurred one week before he announced his candidacy for President. A few months later he would be dead. But his visit touched off what the mountain people still call “a ripple of hope” that empowered them to take their future into their own hands...
...The folks of southeastern Kentucky remember RFK with extraordinary fondness. His touching intimacy and directness had a lasting effect on them, says attorney Jim Pruitt, a local Democratic Party activist who was only six when RFK came through. Pruitt now works in an office in Pikeville with pictures of “Kennedys looking at me from every direction.” He says he is inspired every day by a Bobby Kennedy quote from a speech in South Africa in 1966:
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Thanks again for this thread.
LuvNewcastle
(17,044 posts)He was killed in the year before I was born, so I never knew him, but everything I've read and seen about the man makes me think he would have been a great President. Maybe he could have brought the country together after all the divisiveness of the 60's. We'll never know.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Still Hungry in America by Robert Coles. Ted Kennedy wrote the introduction. I bought a copy when it first came out in 69 (it has since fallen apart from use). I was still in high school and scraped together all the money I had at the time to get this book, because within its pages were the very faces I saw on my many train trips through rural WV. Haunts me to this day.
LuvNewcastle
(17,044 posts)
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Not just Appalacia. That said, we haven't been able to get any such programs through Congress since the early Clinton years, and those programs, while good, were comparatively inexpensive and of very limited efficacy. Frankly, there's not much the national Democratic Party could do for West Virginia at the moment, though I note that Candidate Obama did talk about "clean coal technologies" in the 2008 campaign, much as you recommended.
I very much appreciated reading what you had to say on this subject. Thanks for continuing to fight the good fight.
-Laelth
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)God, gays, guns, abortion--fully in line with the Republican base.
Throw in the Democrats' trend towards becoming a multicultural, multiracial party symbolized by running a black guy for President, and it was a done deal for a state not known for its embrace of cultural diversity and forward thinking (really think Clinton's 50 point win over Obama was due to policy???)
And, of course, the generally pro- carbon pollution bias of the voters there is what set this all up starting in 2000.
Some marriages are doomed to fail, and the DNC-WV fallout was inevitable.
IronLionZion
(47,120 posts)they used to benefit from federal spending with Byrd. They are suffering from having an economy dependent on a dying coal industry instead of being more diversified.
I don't want to get into the racial/gays/cultural issues but they are right about one thing, the Democratic party has written them off when it comes to campaigning and listening to them. If they only hear from Republicans and coal companies, they are only going to hear bullshit and blame the president and EPA.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Just like it's written off Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Kansas, Utah, Alabama, etc.
The best that state can do in terms of national office seekers is Joe Manchin.
In 2008, 20% of Democratic primary voters admitted they voted for Clinton because Obama is black.
National Democrats are not going to do well in any demographic where people are more likely to believe Jesus rode a dinosaur than believe the science behind climate change.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... the view that to the current President they really are invisible and not worth his time.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)How much did "man of the people" Mitt Romney need to woo them?
None, because he's white and rightwing just like they are.
This is a state that would vote for Ted Cruz over Hillary Clinton, and where 38% of DEMOCRATS want Obama impeached.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2013/PPP_Release_WV_925.pdf
The problem isn't the national party. It's doing fine. It's that West Virginians are just a lot more backwards than the rest of the country
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)I suspect it's because of responses like yours that I simply stopped trying to engage in any kind of reasonable discourse about the politics of Appalachia. I guess "they" aren't the only people whose stereotyping and close-minded attitudes are obstacles to change.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)that West Virginians are mostly homophobic, racist, anti-choice, climate change deniers.
The reason they vote Republican is because they agree with the Republicans more than they agree with the Democrats.
Barack Obama did not make West Virginia a rightwing state. Neither did John Kerry, or Howard Dean, or Al Gore.
I guess the Democrats could do as you suggest and throw women, gays, Latinos, blacks, and non-Christians under the bus in order to compete for WV's whopping 3 Electoral Votes.
And by impeaching Obama for being black. And promising to pollute the atmosphere with as much CO2 as possible. And hand out guns to every kid when they turn 12.
Fortunately, they see the big picture.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)I do criticize the Democratic Party for largely ignoring the very real and myriad problems in Appalachia. Is there something in that criticism you find false? Being optimistic, I still believe that if you take your message to the people they will listen, and if you commit to those words by action and in deed, they will follow.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)any Democrats to Congress.
Republicans have done even less for Appalachia.
But, Man of the People Willard "Mitt" Romney dominated that state.
West Virginia would choose Ted Cruz over Hillary Clinton. Think about that. You really gonna tell me that they're voting based on who would be better for Appalachia or who has shown more concern for Appalachia.
The GOP shutdown had popular support in West Virginia. This is an anti-government state.
Maybe if they showed a willingness to vote rationally instead of based on their dislike of the EPA, gays, and abortion, Democrats would pay attention.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... as is the Governor.
Be that as it may, it's quite obvious that you offer no suggestions other than to write the state off. That's not really any basis for discussion, so I guess I'll simply bid you a good day.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)
Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)NRA.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Frankly, not worth fighting for at the moment compared to the overall fight for America. Hopefully eventually they can be pulled out of their fox-addled, rush-deluded condition and join the rest of the world. Otherwise they will remain with the rest of Appalachia stuck in the depression 1900's. I feel sorry for the progressives there, but there are lots of us down here in Georgia, and I don't see a lot of articles bemoaning the red shift of this state, or Texas, both of which have cost America far more.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)in 5 of them. For comparison GA went Democratic 3 times. Even CA only beats WV by one, Blue in 6 of the last 10.