The fundamental problem is that technological progress displaces workers. It started with agricultural and the invention/discovery of the wheel and it’s all been downhill from there.
It is not so much electoral laws, it is the fact that finance is essential to all parts of the economy that gives it so much power. I.e. it is in a position where if it gets into trouble, it brings down the rest of the economy with it, so the government cannot ignore it and just let it suffer. Unfortunately, government always seems to be a step behind the finance industry’s “innovations”. Some of them actually do provide value to the rest of the economy, but others merely enrich itself at the expense of everyone else, and still others increase systemic risk that puts the rest of the economy at risk.
That’s all true, but it’s also important that colossal sums of money are required to run for office, campaign finance laws don’t restrict that giving in any meaningful way, and finance-relevant laws and policies are written by the same politicians who are so heavily funded by finance companies (who, in many cases, essentially write the laws and policies themselves).
We have to watch getting political here.
Don’t forget all this affects more than that just a majority that voted one way or another. It puts those who didn’t vote that way in the same boat. And families.
I love coal! I have been heating my home with coal for over 20 years. Many around here have pulled out the oil furnaces and replaced with coal powered furnaces. We make sure we water down our coal bins each year so we only burn clean coal.
Hopefully Trump can kill regulations to get coal production up and lower the cost of coal. It sure would help out the NE economy if we were able to pay less for coal.
@MassDaD68 - have you read this thread? It’s been made abundantly clear that coal isn’t being held back by “regulations.”
Unfortunately, it’s going to be a problem for our entire state. Just about every program that helps the people of McDowell County (and all other 54 counties, which have poor people too) is being cut by the federal government. As for the state making up for the cuts - no way! We’re broke as the Ten Commandments and I, as a state employee, will be lucky to have a job when it’s all over with.
To be honest, I feel kind of sold down the river by the Trump voters here. I’m the polar opposite of them in many ways, but I’m still going to suffer because they fell for the con.
Um … yes they did. We were the first state to go red on election night, and I found it hard to believe the rest of the country could be so stupid. A lot of people here who voted for Trump hadn’t voted for years, or ever, because they didn’t feel like any candidates had their interests in mind. The people who stayed home, or wrote in candidates, are the ones who just couldn’t stomach either Trump or Clinton. I held my nose and voted for Clinton. S2 wanted to write in Waka Flocka Flame but actually ended up writing in Bernie Sanders. I wish I’d thought of that.
I get that, @Bestfriendsgirl , but WV wasn’t the difference maker in electoral votes–Trump would have won even if HRC took WV.
Just recent history. They loved FDR and JFK here. Still do, especially JFK. There’s a restaurant, in my hometown of Huntington, that is still pretty much as it was in 1960. JFK drank a cup of coffee in a booth there and it’s a genuine tourist attraction. And historians still marvel at the fact that the wealthy Catholic JFK won in poor, Catholic-averse West Virginia. It’s only since Reagan and the culture wars that we turned red.
@marvin100 - True. Nobody gives two hoots for our measly three electoral votes, which is another reason some people stay home on election day.
^But people just like them gave him victories in PA, OH, and MI.
I know people who didn’t vote that way are also going to be hurt. I know WVA is dirt poor. But the people of WVA and your legislature are the ones who need to step up, now.
I only care about the people in my state now and protecting the poor here from the administration’s draconian cuts in social programs. The red states can go fend for themselves. It’s what they voted for. I’ve been hearing forever about “state’s rights,” from these same people and now their wish is coming true.
No, his voters in those states were above average income levels.
https://newrepublic.com/article/138754/blame-trumps-victory-college-educated-whites-not-working-class
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/01/trump-election-democrats-gop-clinton-whites-workers-rust-belt/
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/12/the_myth_of_the_rust_belt_revolt.html
There are no red states; there is only Purple America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_America
More good stuff about how reductive red/blue state notions are and how misleading they can be:
https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Blue-Rich-Poor/dp/0691143935
Totally–that’s in the link. I was referring to how the Dems squandered their dominance in WV and why WV folks turned away from the Dems.
You’ve obviously never been to Kansas.
Those that are too stupid to exercise their right to vote ( I’m not talking about those who were disenfranchised by TPTB in their states) or who voted third party are equally culpable, imo. Actions, or lack thereof, have consequences.
^ I agree. People need to get out and vote!
So, one might support T voters in NY, (because they lost?,) but not H voters in WV, who also lost? I don’t think paternalism gets split that way. Just saying…
LF, of course it can and I can do it in a number of ways. My energy now is focused on my state legislature and my governor and I’ve decided to give directly to local charities that T voters - even in my state, are against.
I even had the pleasure of telling one of those voters in my state that no way would my H help her daughter get a job (with the State, no less) because of who she voted for.
Meanwhile in Austin, Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, and lots of other booming cities, the unemployment rate is less than 5% and employers like me can’t find enough people to hire. But by all means, let’s keep rolling out government programs in Appalachia because it would be totally unfair to make the unemployed overweight smokers move out of their family plots and face the reality that their former life isn’t coming back.
I remember when the wonderful movie Matewan came out (1987). It is about unionizing a very fragmented community of miners in the 1920’s, but when the movie was released all the union jobs had gone already and coal was in trouble for many reasons. Coal has failed to be a livable job creator for decades now and it is easy to get frustrated with people who can’t seem to get that message.