Posted on 04/28/2005 9:38:04 AM PDT by wvgasman
April 28, 2005 Red state?
West Virginia shift
Several times, we have posed this question for political experts: Why did West Virginia — long a Roosevelt-and-Kennedy Democratic “blue state” — become a Republican “red state” in the past two presidential elections, despite 2-to-1 Democratic registration?
Why did this low-income state vote for the party of the rich — a party openly slashing help for common Americans and giving huge rewards to the wealthy?
We never received an explanation from any of the state’s political professors or other societal analysts. But an answer was offered by one of the world’s premier journals, Le Monde of Paris.
In a long report titled “What’s the matter with West Virginia?” the French newspaper said the Mountain State has been pulled to the right by exaggerated patriotism, love of guns, Bible Belt fundamentalism, resentment of liberal intellectuals, and defense of the coal industry against environmentalism.
The report (the title mimics the brilliant book, What’s the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America) actually was written just before last fall’s balloting. The author, international observer Serge Halimi, toured the state, interviewing voters.
“George Bush’s policies in his first term mainly benefited the rich, but surprisingly he is most popular in the poorest states, which were former union and Democratic strongholds,” the report began. It added: “The history of the United States would have been very different if West Virginia had not broken with tradition last time.”
The author found various reasons for West Virginia’s rightward swing. He said he talked with “a brother and sister in the state capital, Charleston, who will vote Republican for ‘religious reasons’ — yet the brother is a schoolteacher and he has no health insurance.”
The analysis said environmentalists are disliked by mountain folk because they’re “suspected of endangering the few remaining jobs in industry that relocations and pit closures have spared. And the issue of gun control plays into the hands of the most reactionary candidates.” The writer noted that West Virginia schools close for deer season, and “several thousand animals are slaughtered in just a few hours.”
Le Monde said President Bush’s invasion of Iraq didn’t “dent his popularity” in West Virginia, because “most Americans support the idea of a blow for a blow.” They wanted to strike Iraq in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attack, even though Iraq had no connection to that tragedy. Instead of worrying about the war, it said, West Virginians focus on “local concerns: faith, patriotism, mining and guns.”
The Parisian paper said Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry seemed snobbish and unsure, while Republican Bush was simplistic and direct. It said Bush’s “anti-intellectual stance and his feel for ordinary people connect with the expectations and resentments of his least-fortunate supporters” — even though “he is well-known for his tongue-twisted Bushisms and at times can seem almost simple-minded.”
“The Republicans’ phony populism and constant insistence on issues of cultural identity — religion, hunting and tradition — take advantage of the fact that people have little time for social history.”
Le Monde said the GOP, Fox News and other right-wing voices stirred working-class resentment against superior-acting left-wingers — “the liberal elite, a horde of quibbling lawyers, haughty academics, depraved journalists and know-it-all actors.” It added: “This con trick is possible only because the smugness of those in the know is even more insufferable than the insolence of the rich.”
Does this explain why West Virginia became a red state in the past two elections? We aren’t sure — but we haven’t heard any different explanations.
The real question, of course, is whether the conservative shift is permanent. Has West Virginia become part of the Republican “Solid South,” or will the Democratic majority regain its footing? Since the Democratic Party represents working families, and the Mountain State consists mainly of them, we hope the pendulum swings back, and the state’s electoral votes cease going to the party of the rich
Sure. Like they tried.
I think it would be pure folly to think that West Virginia's tilt in the most recent elections was temporary. Social conservatism is slaughtering the Dems across the South, and I believe West Virginia is no exception. Oh, and by the way, the French analysis is so typically biased, even though they did actually pick up on a few things.
It is this erroneous assumption that is dooming the Democrats at every turn. The liberals take this on faith then move on to their favorite extreme causes and leave the "working familites" in the dust. That slight is then remembered in the voting booth.
But then that's just my theory. I have no earthly idea of a theory that could justify the continued re-election of Senator Byrd.
Since the Democratic Party represents working families,
NO THEY DON'T.
The democrats are no longer the party of the working man. They have been moving away from that since the 1960's and 1970's starting with McCarthy and McGovern. They took that a step further with Mike Dukakis, and completely left that with Bill Clinton's sellout, and collecting the money from George Soros, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and academia. The democrats are now the party of rich leftists. They abandoned their former bases in rural America.
I hope West Virginia and it's political twin in the UP of Michigan do not switch back to the party that has abandoned them.
Since the Democratic Party represents working families,
NO THEY DON'T.
The democrats are no longer the party of the working man. They have been moving away from that since the 1960's and 1970's starting with McCarthy and McGovern. They took that a step further with Mike Dukakis, and completely left that with Bill Clinton's sellout, and collecting the money from George Soros, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and academia. The democrats are now the party of rich leftists. They abandoned their former bases in rural America.
I hope West Virginia and it's political twin in the UP of Michigan do not switch back to the party that has abandoned them.
"resentment of liberal intellectuals"
I prefer the term
Sexual Intellectual...
read between the lines on that one :)
Agreed. West Virgina has a RAT governor, 2 out of 2 RAT Senators, 2 out of 3 RAT Congressman, a RAT state Senate, and a RAT state house, but now they're a "red state" because they voted the "right way" in a handful of Presidential elections?
WV is still overrun with RATs on the state level. They even managed to hold on the governor's mansion AFTER their RAT governor resigned in disgrace and there was no "heir apprent". They'll be changeover in the guard when we start getting some Rs holding MAJOR STATEWIDE OFFICE in WV.
Until then, it's Robert Byrd country.
Scots-Irish independents.
Not a particularly good analogy. He was not wildly successful in his WV campaigns.
Hmmm...I feel your pain, brother. Ya know, if you do 'due diligence' on your WV political history, you'll find that the Democrats of the late 1800's were very similar in ideology to the Republicans of today in our little, po', back'erd state. And we never did like the French, anyway. All in all, it's not that surprising that the mainstream WV Democrats are splitting with the national party, given the conservative history of the party here.
Filter out the BS and this LeMonde guy is making sense.
Could the vote possibly be explained by the disdain for the beliefs and values of West Virginians that drips from almost every paragraph of this screed?
"I have nothing but contempt for everything you hold dear. Given the chance, I'll do my best to destroy those things. Vote for me."
They're the ones.
Growing up in WV and voting Republican in the Mountain state since 1988, I know the answer. WV is and always has been a very conservative state despite its 2-to-1 advantage to the Dems in registration. WV hasn't changed-the Democratic party has. The Dems were far more conservative in the past than they are now. Besides my immediate family, the entire rest of my family and friends of the family are all registered Democrats, they just hadn't voted for a Dem since JFK (or thereabouts). They didn't leave the Democratic party; it left them.
It's just not your mommy and daddy's party anymore.
Very good. I appreciate the history lesson. Actually it was a smart remark in reference to Northern Virginia as Lee's Army was known as the "Confederate Army of Northern Virginia". I also consider him a great American as he did many things to bring the nation back together after the Civil War, including kneeling with a black man at the alter.
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