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
I have crossed swords with the Gazette's editor, James Haught, on several occasions.
Haught is, without question, the most hateful and elitist snob I've ever exchanged e-mails with. His utter contempt for his readership is astounding.
If they think that's bad, they should count the deer corpses alongside the highways.
And pay the car repair bills.
My guess is that car insurance companies HATE PETA and anti-hunting environmentalists.
Ditto!
Not a big surprise that the Charleston "putzette" would side with the french.
That's what good liberal papers do, that and side with nonsensical and inchoerant rantings of robert byrd.
Because the Republicans now talk like Democrats except when it comes money.
West Virginia is a state full of natural resources that are owned and exploited by liberal blue state industrialists. The last thing these blue staters want is a self sufficient Appalachian. It worked for quite consistently from the Great Depression until 1980.
Does the name Rockefeller ring a bell?
West Virginians in the aggregate are pro-God, pro-guns, pro-military, pro-life, and anti-enviroweenie.
They are also pro-tax, pro-regulation, anti-business, and pro-sucking at the government teat.
So I think this will be a swing state for some time to come.
"Haught is, without question, the most hateful and elitist snob" perfect name to match his description, haughty.
This editorial was so slanted I had to check the source, thinking it was some "alternative" socialist newspaper, not the state's "pre-eminent" rag. Let them question no more why circulation in all MSM is on the decline.
Well, he pretty much describes the liberals perfectly. Perhaps instead of being conned, West Virginians are just make simple observations about the world they live in.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
You all make the simple complicated.
If West Virginia is more conservative, it's because it has lost population.
"West Virginia has lost an average of 15,940 residents per year, 1,328 citizens per month, 307 per week, and 44 per day. Imagine two people packing up and leaving the state almost every hour of every day, and that would best describe West Virginia's migration over the years."
The more people packed into an area, the more liberal they become.
The fewer people, the more conservative.
The French reporter was wrong about why he was right.
From the article:
“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.”
Because the Republicans have achieved a connection with the working man / woman in areas of great concern, it must be due to "phony populism." It can't be that the left has a great disconnect in these same areas of great concern with the common working man / woman. The common working man / woman is not smart enough to determine what is good for him and her. It must be explained to us.
Another left-wing article saying people who vote Republican are stupid. I wonder if these elitists will ever realize that insulting the vast majority of Americans isn't good editorial policy.
Indeed the U.S. has plenty of coal which would help our energy problems if we could just defeat our internal enemies (enviro nazis). Also, with smokestack scrubbers coal burns cleaner now than ever before.
Gee. That's an original title.
You will never meet more friendlier people than those in WV. They'll tell you which route is the best to get from point A to B, and not give you a sneer like NY'ers or Jerseyites do.
It's this desperate stuff posted as so called journalism above by the Charleston Gazette which tries to serve the ultimate purpose of keeping of what they think is, those stupid hillbillies in line, while pleasing their NYT "masters of journalism", and is robert byrd politics in action.
JMO, the times they are a changin.
I got news for this newspaper and the French. The republican party is no longer the party of the Rockefellers, it is the party of the conservative. Thats me.
The paper is beating on that drum, because its the last instrument they know how to play. Several months ago, I moved from the timber country in southwest Washington State, and I used to get into all kinds of arguments with my ex-wife's pinheaded relatives. They liked to hunt with guns, fish, work in extractive industries, distrusted homosexuals, didn't really think much of abortion, and despised the eco-nuts in Seattle.
Yet, they always kept harping on Bush and the Republicans as being "for the rich". It was this pig-headedness that made them vote for Rats, and just hand over power in the state legislature to people from Seattle who had absolute contempt for their way of life. As long as it still works on the thick-skulled, I expect liberal rags to keep using this BS.
He's a venomous, hateful atheist who preaches the far left sermon at every turn. I know many a person who lives down that way, including more than a few relatives. Most do not subscribe to this paper due to his editorial stance and the vomit that they pass off for news each day.
Here's hoping they'll come to their senses and vote "Sheets" Byrd out of office in the next election!
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