Seventy-four percent of the voters in McDowell County, West Virginia supported Donald Trump. It’s one of the poorest counties in the country.
Recently MSNBC host Chris Hayes filmed a town hall meeting Bernie Sanders held in a local McDowell County high school. One man seemed to speak for the rest who were there when he said: “We need drug rehab. We need it so badly. We need jobs. We need infrastructure. We need drinking water that’s clean. We need housing.”
Donald Trump promised McDowell County residents all of that and more during the campaign.
He blamed President Obama for rejecting “clean” coal and letting environmental regulations kill the coal industry.
Of course, “clean” coal is the equivalent of “harmless” tobacco. Neither exists in the real world.
But that didn’t matter to Trump.
Nor did the fact that automation accounts for much of the job loss in McDowell County, or the fact that the primary reason the coal industry is going belly up is because natural gas that is easier and cheaper to get out of the ground is the preferred alternative to coal fired power plants.
What is interesting is that the McDowell County residents told Bernie that they didn’t believe Trump was going to bring back the jobs as he promised.
My guess is, they knew that when they voted for him. They are smart enough to have known about automation and they certainly knew about natural gas.
And when he told them that Obamacare was “a disaster,” they knew he was talking about the very program that had given them health insurance for the first time since losing their jobs.
Beyond all of that, McDowell County voters know Republicans have never been their friends.
They know Republicans called labor organizer John L. Lewis a communist when he unionized the coal industry in the 1920s, and that Ronald Reagan made union busting one of his primary goals.
They know a Democratic president saved the nation from the 1929 Great Depression Republican policies caused.
They know that President Obama brought the nation back from the brink of disaster during the 2008 Great Recession that Republicans caused and then refused to do anything about.
People in West Virginia are like the rest of the country. They know Democrats created Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and are still fighting for healthcare for everyone, and they know Republicans have fought against every one of these programs and are still trying to get rid of them.
So when someone claims that Americans like those living in McDowell County voted for Trump and a Republican Congress because they believed Democrats were not paying attention to them, I just don’t buy it.
You cannot tell me that if McDowell County residents need drug rehab, jobs, infrastructure, clean drinking water, and housing, it never crossed their minds that they would never get any of that from Donald Trump and a Republican Congress.
After all, it is no secret that Republicans believe the answer to the economic struggles of average American families are tax cuts for the rich and a market free of any consumer protections.
Pure and simple, Republicans believe in the economic version of survival of the fittest economy, just as their replacement plan for Obamacare is highlighting at this very moment.
So to believe the residents of McDowell County voted for Trump because they felt neglected by Democrats is like believing a family in trouble turns from the neighbors who have always helped them through tough times to neighbors who have never bothered to speak to them.
No, there has to be another reason for the way they voted, and I suggest the street version of the principle of Occam’s razor should be our guide, that the simplest answer is likely the right one.
McDowell County residents voted as they did because they blame Democrats for the loss of the American dream.
They believe Democrats are only interested in things like racism, GLBT rights, women’s rights, abortion rights, or protecting the environment, and that these causes have destroyed the America they once loved.
When they heard Trump say he wanted to make America great again, they heard him promising to restore a former America where the government let people live their lives without forcing them to do anything they didn’t want to do.
They want to bring back the days when they had the freedom to work in unsafe mines and send toxic sludge into mountain creeks and produce coal that put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
In their view government regulations are the equivalent of outsiders coming into their county and forcing them to change their way of life.
So let’s be honest. As tragic as the poverty in McDowell County is, and as real as the social problems it creates are, the people who live there voted for Trump because they don’t like the America of today and want to go back to a way of life they believe used to exist.
Bernie Sanders may think the key to defeating Trump and the Republican Congress going forward is to win back voters like those in McDowell County, but I think he is confusing cheers for votes.
On the surface it makes sense that ordinary Americans would support a political party that has always worked to help them have a better life, but personal circumstances have led many of them not to want to hear about continued racism, civil rights for GLBT individuals, about the separation of church and state, about trying to limit global warming, and the like.
Because they have been duped by Trump’s dog whistle mantra that we need to make America great again, they blame others for the alienation they feel that is in reality self-imposed.
It is true that life has dealt them a rough hand, but it’s no one’s fault, not even theirs. Sadly, though, they make matters worse by listening to people like Trump who are exploiting their bad circumstances.
Until they truly see what has happened to them, and is happening to them still, they will continue to make decisions that will work against them rather than for them.
I suppose it is always possible that they will vote differently next time, but I doubt it.
Telling them things they already know that should have opened their eyes a long time ago has proven not to make much difference up to this point, and despite Bernie’s best intentions, I suspect it won’t any time soon.
linnposts.com 
Well said. We can only hope that enough people will see through the smoke and mirrors to vote differently. I would hope that 24 million people losing health insurance would change some votes.
It might, Wilbur, but I am afraid their frustrations and anger at life will keep them in Trump’s corner.
Watching the unity of the Senators on C Span today gave me hope of delving into the cybercrime by the Russians. Congress does have the power, I hope it has the backbone before to much damage is done. As for the voters in WV I agree with you.
There is hope, Eleanor, if few Republican Senators act with courage and commitment to the country instead of going along with the party leadership. We will see if any of them has the character the nation needs from them.
Well spoken, as always. I appreciate your blogging work. With Respect to Trump, I think his “Make America Great Again” was never, and still is, nothing more than an emotional appeal to some mythological time in the past when America was “great”. I think America is Great today, as it always has been, and will continue to be if politicians don’t screw it up, which I think is a distinct possibility. Of course politicians aren’t brought by a stork. They are brought by voters, who, in my opinion are not, as a group, very intelligent in who they vote for. I wish I knew how to fix this because I think it is a very large problem. The only way I see to fix it is for voters to learn about candidates and political parties. And learning that will not come about by observing political advertising, except as a means of learning how NOT to vote., It will come about by effort applied to study and real learning. I am not optimistic about the chances of that happening. I think the voters of McDowell County are evidence to support my pessimism. They got what they voted for.
Wally, I think you are exactly right in saying informed voting is the key to changing the current situation. We have more political power than we believe because we either discount the role of voting or we vote without being informed. In both ways we give away our power. Maybe this election will teach us an enduring lesson.