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50 Years Into the War on Poverty, Hardship Hits Back (Massive Democrat Failure)
The New York Times ^ | April 20, 2014 | TRIP GABRIEL

Posted on 04/23/2014 3:09:32 AM PDT by Timber Rattler

McDowell County, the poorest in West Virginia, has been emblematic of entrenched American poverty for more than a half-century. John F. Kennedy campaigned here in 1960 and was so appalled that he promised to send help if elected president. His first executive order created the modern food stamp program, whose first recipients were McDowell County residents. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty” in 1964, it was the squalor of Appalachia he had in mind. The federal programs that followed — Medicare, Medicaid, free school lunches and others — lifted tens of thousands above a subsistence standard of living.

But a half-century later, with the poverty rate again on the rise, hardship seems merely to have taken on a new face in McDowell County. The economy is declining along with the coal industry, towns are hollowed out as people flee, and communities are scarred by family dissolution, prescription drug abuse and a high rate of imprisonment.

(snip)

Many in McDowell County acknowledge that depending on government benefits has become a way of life, passed from generation to generation. Nearly 47 percent of personal income in the county is from Social Security, disability insurance, food stamps and other federal programs.

(snip)

Sheriff West, a former coal miner who presided over a magistrate court before he was elected sheriff in 2012, said the region’s ills traced back to many failures by elected officials, including local politicians who governed by patronage and state leaders in Charleston, the capital, who took the county’s solidly Democratic voters for granted and never courted them with aid.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: coal; mcdowell; poverty; waroncoal
Dancing around the truth...
1 posted on 04/23/2014 3:09:32 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
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To: Timber Rattler
Expanding the pool of poor people means there are more people who want to vote for the "do-gooders".

Is it odd that the "do-gooders" promote policies which expand the poor of poor people? Not really.

2 posted on 04/23/2014 3:12:58 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Timber Rattler

It’s a quagmire!!


3 posted on 04/23/2014 3:14:37 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Timber Rattler

Poverty rates would drop like a rock if we eliminated the modern welfare state.


4 posted on 04/23/2014 3:37:01 AM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Drango
Hidden money quote:

depending on government benefits has become a way of life, passed from generation to generation.

5 posted on 04/23/2014 3:44:59 AM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Timber Rattler

Liberal Math... No responsibility + No motivation = Democrat for life


6 posted on 04/23/2014 3:48:59 AM PDT by MaggiesPitchfork
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To: Timber Rattler
leaders in Charleston, the capital, who took the county’s solidly Democratic voters for granted and never courted them with aid.

The preceding paragraphs make it sound like that's all they "courted them" with.

7 posted on 04/23/2014 3:56:14 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.Isaiah 48: 22)
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To: Timber Rattler
 photo Reid20boycott.jpg

"This War is lost. "

8 posted on 04/23/2014 4:00:22 AM PDT by digger48
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To: Drango

In Appalachia, Poverty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/18/263629452/in-appalachia-poverty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder


9 posted on 04/23/2014 4:20:06 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: Drango

Sounds like my hometown...


10 posted on 04/23/2014 4:24:14 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: Drango

“Hidden money quote: depending on government benefits has become a way of life, passed from generation to generation.”

This has only come to the fore because whites started doing it en masse; when it was a black problem people accepted it as a bribe (almost reparations, but they had to stay in their cages to get them). Now that young whites have learned to work the system, it has quickly become even more unaffordable (and unlike jobs, promotions, or college seats, they can’t withhold benefits based on race/gender).


11 posted on 04/23/2014 4:26:19 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Timber Rattler

I recently was in Romney, WV for a tactical training class and I looked for that desperate poverty and I could not find much. Did see some trailers, but to claim WV is America’s white Soweto is a little much. Romney and the small towns around it were nice little towns with well kept houses.


12 posted on 04/23/2014 4:39:28 AM PDT by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: Timber Rattler

New truth....

I visit WV from time to time to look at mining equipment being exported. There are a lot of small manufacturers making very specialized mining machinery and equipment that are being wiped out by the war on coal.

While not in the hundreds or thousands, they have lots of employees that are becoming jobless. The alternative is the mines.....nope, also closed.


13 posted on 04/23/2014 4:44:43 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: Timber Rattler

Unscientific.

Bad as the situation is, without a control group there is no way to tell whether there would be even more poor people today were it not for the war on poverty.


14 posted on 04/23/2014 5:05:19 AM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: Age of Reason

Spoiler Alert!!! Spoiler Alert!!!

Poverty Won


15 posted on 04/23/2014 5:40:21 AM PDT by Hillary'sMoralVoid
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To: Timber Rattler
When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty” in 1964, it was the squalor of Appalachia he had in mind.

Lie. As a matter of fact, Democrat President Lyndon Baines Johnson stated, “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years” as he confided with two like-minded governors on Air Force One regarding his underlying intentions for the “Great Society” programs.

16 posted on 04/23/2014 7:34:33 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: ClearCase_guy; All
We cannot have any discussion until we define our terms. Something that is not done very often. What is “poor”?
Look at the last census stats and see what the poor have. TV,AC,cars, etc. Look what the people in WVA had in the 60’s. Many did not even have running water or indoor sanitation.
There are very few “poor” in the America of today. It is all about how you define the term. Do the poor have 30 room mansions? No. Does it matter? Our poor are the 1% of most countries.
The government expands the definition in order to control more of the population.
17 posted on 04/23/2014 7:54:42 AM PDT by prof.h.mandingo (Buck v. Bell (1927) An idea whose time has come (for extreme liberalism))
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To: prof.h.mandingo
Your points are good.

I would offer this explanation: "The poor" in America includes anyone who is a "victim", anyone who has been "shafted" by those "more powerful". Anyone who thinks they deserve a life which is "better" than whatever it is they have right now.

People who wish their bank account were more flush, women, blacks, homosexuals, criminals ... the list could go on. The Democrats want to create a pool of angry people who blame others for their situation (it's all the fault of the Koch brothers).

To a certain extent, I think the Democrats build social situations which make people fall into an abyss (The Great Society and the War on Poverty) but beyond that, the Democrats engage in a psychological struggle to convince many people that they should hate their life, hate their situation, and hate their society. Then, those people vote for Democrats who promise "fundamental transformation".

The term "poor" is shorthand for all of the above.

18 posted on 04/23/2014 6:25:03 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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