The Rude Pundit - Toothless Hicks Agree: We Love Obamacare, Wish a White Man Had Signed It

[theHandpuppet]

92. I think some Kentucky folks would be better equipped to answer you

You might even wish to pose that question to Appalachia Group, as some of our number really don't post to GD anymore. I can only follow some trends via the newspapers. From what I have gathered the big issue is what you might expect: COAL. There have been recent, massive layoffs of miners and people blame the democrats for eliminating their jobs. They also view Grimes as an extension of the present administration and McConnell's ads push Grimes as an enemy of coal and by extension, miners and their families. If there were alternative, well-paying, union jobs in the area this wouldn't even be an issue and had our party been smart and forward-thinking, we could have been cultivating a new Appalachian economy for the past 50 years. As it stands, if you take away coal jobs in some parts of West Virginia and Kentucky, you also take away the other well-paying jobs associated with that industry -- railroads, trucking, river cargo, etc., plus the thousands of small businesses supported by the wages from those industries. Right now there's simply nothing to take their place but fear. Fear of losing jobs, housing, fear of not being able to put food on the table. That's an incredibly powerful motivator to challenge with policy debates.