Trumped: Coals Collapse, Economic Anxiety Motivated Ohio Valley Voters

[workinclasszero]

Trumped: Coal’s Collapse, Economic Anxiety Motivated Ohio Valley Voters
By Jeff Young-Alexandra Kanik

The Ohio Valley ReSource looked to voters and voting data to learn more about what motivated Donald Trump’s supporters and what they hope he will do as president.

“More than Obama did!” Judy Collier said from a grocery story parking lot in Whitesburg, Kentucky. “We need jobs.”

Trump seized on coal’s demise and pinned the blame on federal regulations. West Virginia University history professor William Hal Gorby said that fits a long pattern in regional politics.

The “war on coal” still makes for politically potent rhetoric. However, it does not match well with facts. Executives at electric utilities say their move away from coal has more to do with economics than environmental regulation — natural gas is just cheaper. And since Election Day, some mining industry supporters have walked back their promises of a coal comeback.

ReSource reporter Kanik’s analysis shows several counties in the region with the worst poverty also had the greatest turnout for Trump.

“Martin County, with some of the highest poverty in Kentucky, had 10 times the vote for Trump,” she said. “In fact, no county in our region with greater than 30 percent poverty went blue.”

Health care was also an issue for some Trump voters.

“We need medical care,” Judy Collier said. “More than Obamacare — cheaper medicine.”

This is an issue where the vote and the data tell different stories. Kanik noted that as recently as 2013, Kentucky and West Virginia had uninsured rates of 20 percent or higher. Both states made tremendous progress under the Affordable Care Act.

“By 2016, after both states expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, we saw rates much closer to 5 or 10 percent,” she said.

Yet only two counties in those two states went blue. Most voted for the candidate who pledged to repeal the law.

http://wfpl.org/trumped-coals-collapse-economic-anxiety-motivated-ohio-valley-voters/

[LonePirate]

1. There is a lot of gullibility, ignorance or both in poor, rural America.

These people are going to learn a very painful but deserved lesson over the next four years. It's too bad the rest of us have to endure it as well.

[SharonAnn]

2. I'm getting pretty hard-hearted about these voters. They must want to be more miserable.

Poorer, more ignored, unhealthier, etc.? That's what they voted for. They truly don't understand it.

I live in East TN, (Appalachia) and people on disability and Medicaid/Medicare voted for this man! They're not going to get coal jobs back! If coal companies did ever increase production, they'd do it by blowing up mountains and using heavy machinery to process and load the coal. Very few people are needed in coal mining these days.

Ginned up religious reason? Puhleaze. They're all against the teachings of Christ but "Hey" they're against abortion. And they, who receive the Disability and Medicaid, are all upset about the "takers". I can only assume that they know others who are gaming the system and receiving money that they're not entitled to. Perhaps they should look within their own community.

Bring jobs back for unskilled workers? There are plenty of them around the country. Picking vegetables and fruit, weeding on farms, office and house cleaning, etc. Yes, I know they're hard and don't pay well, but that's what unskilled and uneducated gets you.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. And to think Ryan and friends

want to gut Medicare and Medicade. Programs that were tweaked to cover people effected by economic disruption and Industry collapses. One has to remember,the Democrats saved this Region in the Sixties with anti poverty programs only to get blamed for years of failure by Politicians and Leadership to plan for the demise of the Fossil Fuel Industry.

[geomon666]

3. .

[hatrack]

4. 6 months - awakening; 12 months - anger; 18 months - blame Obama

.

[Afromania]

5. lol

Sooooo, they want better than the ACA but choose to vote for the guys frothing at the mouth to gut the entire medical system and replace with at best voucher care and at worse (you'd better never ever ever get sick care), which is about the same as voucher care.

Just like the factory jobs, those coal jobs aren't coming back. When, like everything else, China can produce a ton of it by skirting any reasonable safety measures. I suppose they might get the jobs back if they were willing to be paid 200ish bucks a month, that is WHEN they actually get paid, while trying not to get blown to kingdom come because the company they work for has decided proper shaft ventilation costs too much.

[workinclasszero]

6. I blame white racism period

Q: What democrat are these ignorant assholes going to blame a year from now after Dumpf and his damn party destroy what little these people have now?

A: Any democrat foolish enough to work with #notmypresident will receive all the blame from his lies and failed policies.

I'm sure there are still democrats out there who think the news media will report the truth on this even after they built him up and ran cover for him and helped Dumpf defeat Hillary.

The democratic party MUST BE 100% against the guaranteed to fail policies of Fuhrer Dumpf so there can be NO DOUBT that the republican party and its lyin jackal leader are the ones to blame!

And for the record, I hate these ignorant racists for doing their best to destroy me and my loved ones and civil rights in America, may it all come back to you in spades you f**king IDIOTS!

[Historic NY]

8. F R E E puppies.....

their Governor nixed the medical care they were getting via ACA, The DEM platform was to concentrate on job replacement as coal was no longer viable. We suffered through the clean coal bullshit for an election cycle or two.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/08/260151923/kentucky-county-that-gave-war-on-poverty-a-face-still-struggles

[spanone]

9. well, they need to keep asking trump where their 'clean' coal jobs are...24/7 non-stop