Why does West Virginia skew so anti-Obama?

[mvd]

Note: I'm not lumping all WVa. residents in. I'm just wondering why it is one of the most anti-Obama states overall. Even more than many southern states. I know a good many Democrats live there. Is it because they mistakenly think President Obama is out to gut their coal industry?

[cali]

1. racism and coal.

[Warpy]

3. That's not the whole story

The Appalachians in general are Republican strongholds, a leftover from the Civil War when the southern Democrats would go in and slaughter any farmer who hadn't joined up to fight for the dubious glory of the slaveholding flatlanders. There's a long tradition of mistrusting anything Democrats have ever stood for.

[hatrack]

9. That's the irony - West Virginia exists because it was the pro-Union part of Virginia

History notwithstanding, residents today are now apparently determined to become Alabama, and it seems they're well on their way.

[tabasco]

21. We have two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor in WV

Two out of three congress people are Democrats.

Not exactly what I would call a "republican stronghold," despite the fact that they are all moderate-conservative Democrats.

[RZM]

22. Really bizarre post

Democrats have dominated West Virginia for most of its existence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Democratic_Party

[carolinayellowdog]

24. The land was not generally suitable for plantations; they had no slaves because they were poor

It wasn't as if they had plenty of money and good land and just couldn't stand the thought of slavery because they hated black people. Good lord! "they opposed slavery because they were racist" seems like a horrendously unfair bad rap for people who died fighting for the Union.

[arely staircase]

26. the number of w. virginians fighting on either side was low, and about equally union and confederate

On May 30, 1861, Brig. Gen. George B. McClellan in Cincinnati wrote to President Lincoln: "I am confidently assured that very considerable numbers of volunteers can be raised in Western Virginia...".[12] After nearly two months in the field in West Virginia he was less optimistic. He wrote to Gov. Francis Harrison Pierpont of the Restored Government of Virginia in Wheeling that he and his army were anxious to assist the new government, but that eventually they would be needed elsewhere, and that he urged that troops be raised "among the population". "Before I left Grafton I made requisitions for arms clothing etc for 10,000 Virginia troops – I fear that my estimate was much too large."[13] On August 3, 1861, the Wellsburg "Herald" editorialized "A pretty condition Northwestern Virginia is in to establish herself as a separate state...after all the drumming and all the gas about a separate state she has actually organized in the field four not entire regiments of soldiers and one of these hails almost entirely from the Panhandle."[14]

Similar difficulties were experienced by Confederate authorities at the beginning of the war.

The West Virginia Dept. of Archives and History believes that Confederate and Union numbers were about equal[34][35]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_in_the_American_Civil_War#Soldiery

[carolinayellowdog]

28. But the accusation was against the anti-slavery Unionists specifically

My own roots are mostly NC Unionist, so I'm intimately familar with the divisions there, and KY, MO, TN, VA all had large numbers on each side. For those who fought for the Union, there were as many mixed motives as on the other side. But some were non-slaveholders motivated by hostility to slaveholders. (I have some documentary evidence of this in my own roots.) To say that those in WV who were hostile to slavery were motivated by racism, strikes me as a smear.

[arely staircase]

34. ok. it is much more complicated than i put it and i apolgize for any offense

my 4th great grandfather on my dad's side (my mom is mexican) was captured by union forces while defending vicksburg for the csa. so i'm cerrtainly not trying to blood lible anyone. the w. va. situation is more complicated than i phrased it but it is also more complicated than the notion that the state's existance is owed to the folks in that part of virginia being abolitionists - when in fact there was no abolitionist movement as there as there was even in kentucky and other border states. my wording was poor and offensive, though i didn't mean it to be so. again i'm sorry.

edited to say i have removed the offensive posts. i am from texas so i understand what it feels like to have your whole state smeared.

[mvd]

5. I was thinking that. It seems like they used..

to always be in play. Since it isn't one of the more wealthy states, should Obama try a populist message there? Would like to see it go back to our side.

[Nye Bevan]

15. So why are West Virginians racists?

would surely be the next logical question.

Why are residents of Maine, for example, morally superior to West Virginians? Why are West Virginians more contemptible than people from Rhode Island? Genetics?

[jaysunb]

2. Racism n/t

[mitchtv]

4. they enjoy bad water

and mountain top removal?

[Tony_FLADEM]

6. My guess is that people in West Virginia perceive that Obama has not dealt with issues that

have to do with them. For example, Obama has helped the auto industry and reformed Wall Street but the people in West Virginia think this has nothing to do with them. This is helpful to people in other states. Yes, people in West Virginia are effected by the health care issue but they must think it's a bigger issue in other states not them.

[treestar]

16. So they are self-centered?

President Obama hasn't done a thing for my state. But that's for Senators to take care of.

States should think about their governors for that stuff.

[Tony_FLADEM]

17. It's not that they are self-centered

Certain states have unique issues they care about. In West Virginia it's issues related to coal and other types of resources. Obama has had to deal with other things related to the economy. The people in West Virginia perceive they are being ignored. I don't agree with that but that's the reason.

[Son of Gob]

19. It has more to do with Obama's race than anything else

Check the video I posted downthread.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Jobs.

Coal and all the supporting and associated sectors.

Everybody shudders at the prospect, and coal is, in the end, the only thing besides tourism that they think they have to offer.

In reality, the state has a lot to offer, but in the current economic climate, tourism doesn't look great so they are reasonably concerned about what anyone talking clean energy might do to their way of life.

I'm sad for them.

[exboyfil]

8. My family comes from West Virginia

It is racism for sure. My parents did not think twice about using the n word (my mom still does it). She used it front of my kids once, and I let her know that she won't get to see the kids if she talks that way in front of them.

[cthulu2016]

10. Thay have formed an impression that Obama is black.

[carolinayellowdog]

12. Lack of black voters to balance the right-wing whites

VA and NC went Obama in 2008, WV and KY went McCain, but white voters in VA and NC had slightly lower vote percentages for the Democratic candidate than those in WV and KY. (e.g. 39% VA whites for Obama, 41% of WV whites.) It's just that VA and NC had plenty of black voters to cancel out the conservative whites-- which evens the playing field between the parties. WV has only 3.4% black population, KY 7.8%, VA 19.4%, NC 21.5%.

On edit-- here's a 2008 Pollster.com analysis of the vote by race and state.

[TheKentuckian]

20. This is probably the elephant in the room in conjunction with coal being king.

The state is extremely rural as well and that tends to lean against. Even their biggest cities are less populated than big suburbs.

A former boss and I were looking to expand and were considering Huntington because of the aggressive incentives W Virginia was offering and the ease of the drive from Louisville so we went over on a lark and were able to get a meeting with the mayor and the police chief totally unannounced.
In the interest of fairness I will point out that my boss was black and I'm mixed and we got as much of a red carpet and serious interest as one could imagine so I think that the color of your money and the prospect of even a few jobs in their community easily trumped the tone of your skin.

[kenny blankenship]

14. He ran over West Virginia's dog

Didn't even get out of the car to say he was sorry.

[Son of Gob]

18. This video explains a lot

[ecstatic]

31. wow! nt

[kentuck]

25. It also coincides with the Bible Belt...

imo

[mvd]

27. Interesting replies - thanks

I am glad for the most part, we kept the thread from being too personal.

[The Midway Rebel]

30. And you spoke to soon.

Taverner had to weigh in with his mighty opinion posted below and shit all over the interesting part.

[Taverner]

29. Inbreeding nt

[Nye Bevan]

32. Interesting examples of DU standards in this thread.

It seems to be OK to attack West Virginians as racists and inbreds.

But a jury hid the post referring to them as hillbillies who are missing teeth.

[phleshdef]

33. I grew up in WVa... still have family and friends there. And I can tell you, the rumors are all...

...mostly true. WVa is intellectually bankrupt. Its full of poverty, rampant racism, dirty living conditions and under educated people with serious drug addiction problems. And the coal companies have the entire state by the balls. The mountain top removal mining there is killing people, causing cancer, causing flooding and kinds of property damage. But a lot of people there are too stupid and/or stubborn to accept it and are buying into the coal company BS when they tell everyone that Obama's EPA is going to take away what little jobs they have available down there. The fact that he is black and is named "Barack Obama" goes a long way toward their mistrust as well.

I take no joy in putting off on the state like this. Its my home state. But the truth is the truth. Chronic ignorance plagues West Virginia, especially the southern parts. And the people there suffer for it in and its an endless cycle.