For Southern DUers: The Most Democratic County in the US is
Located in Kentucky! I know the south can get bashed quite a bit here, and by progressives in general frustrated by the south continuously voting against their own interests. But apparently there is one county that is solidly blue (although may not be for long, but still, a good read!)
The New Deal dramatically recalibrated the county's worldview. For decades voters had sent Democrats to Washington in part because their forebears deeply resented the party of Lincoln. But the changes brought by an expanded social safety net, government-funded improvement projects and the power to unionize galvanized generations of Elliottonians and instilled in them a pro-government philosophy.
"When the New Deal came in, and the works program came in this county, for the first time a lot of men had a job that paid a wage," explained Gayle Clevenger, a part-time real estate agent and administrator at the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture, and a friend of Jesse Adkins. "Normally how people lived was that they lived on their tobacco and they lived all year to sell that tobacco crop, but for the first time they had a paycheck."
"My mother passed away when I was 9 years old, and I doubt if my dad had five dollars in his pocket," Clevenger recalled. "My father got a job as foreman building Highway 7, and that was the first check that I ever saw my father bring home. I didn't understand that you had to get it cashed, because before that everybody worked and when you worked a day they paid you in hens or potatoes or whatever they had handy."
"It was explained to us, 'This is why I'm registered a Democrat,' and they'd point to some reason, be it a road or something else," he explained of a typical Elliott upbringing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/solid-south-democratic-party-kentucky_n_3151539.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
We were about 60 miles west of Elliot. The HuffPost article makes a good case why TRADITIONAL DEMOCRATIC VALUES WIN. People want the government to use its powers to make life better for ALL Americans -- not just the well-off.
We love the People and the State of Kentucky. Talked politics, justice, equal rights and economics with a lot of folks we met.
We're out of Detroit and we wanted to go horseback riding, etc. Had a blast and learned a lot, too.
Saw this Great Blue Heron (I think) at Yuko-en on the Elkhorn, a Zen Garden in Georgetown, courtesy of Toyota (which pays no local or property taxes).
Thank you for sharing that, cali. I've camped a week in Vermont's state parks, going from south to north, and know your state as a very special and beautiful place. I was a lot younger then -- 1976. Now that I think about it, I haven't really forgotten much about that time, including the raccoons that opened the locked cooler.
The only reason I got that photo was our kids were complaining so much about trekking around the Zen Garden the night before, I didn't find this really cool rock garden hidden beside this building in the middle of the place. So, I made them came back the next morning and they refused to climb out of the car. My wife and I went around the side of the pond and looked across, about 30 yards away, and the heron was looking at us. I moved my hands and got the lens cap off and took as many as I could without moving too much. I got a couple of images of varying fuzziness, but am happy to have recorded a special encounter. Got the rock garden shot, and headed back to the car to report. The kids could've cared less. So, I told them about my Hawaii vacation all the way across Ohio...
We have a series of Metroparks around Detroit with decent sized lakes that make it worthwhile to haul the kayak -- especially Kensington, halfway between Motown and the state capitol. Paddling about I passed the spot where I had seen a single adult walking about, fishing. The wind this day was just right and I silently drifted toward the spot. Thinking these creatures were solitary, I was surprised to discover a group of four adults nesting in a secluded part of the shallows, hidden from the land by tall grasses and the water by tall reeds. I didn't want to bug them, so I made my way away from them. Seeing them is a direct connection to the astonishing web that is life.
Great voices, too. I heard one fly very close by and its voice made a "Hro-ooh! Hro-ooh! Hro-ooh!" as it went by. Amazing creatures.
