What is going on with West Virginia?

[illegaloperation]

West Virginia voted for Jimmy Carter over Ronald Reagan and Michael Dukakis over George H. W. Bush.

We have now lost West Virginia for the last four presidential elections and may lose Jay Rockefeller's seat in the near future.

I realized that King Coal is very important to WV, but Obama managed to lost every county in WV and even lost West Virginia by a bigger margin than he lost Kentucky (which is also coal country).

West Virginia may be rural and white, but we do just fine with some other white rural states.

I know this was discussed before, but I want to bring it up again.

[elleng]

1. Probably a confluence of events, tho I'm not a pro on the subject.

Loss of popular and powerful Senator Byrd, harder than usual economic times, and problems for king coal, come to mind.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. Nothing is going on with West Virginia....

THAT'S why they're pissed.

[caledesi]

4. Very good response. Why even talk about the loss in WV!

Watch FAUX much?

Romney won in a LANDSLIDE!

At least they got the landslide right ...oh, wait

"POTUS squeaked by."

POTUS not only won the electoral vote but the POPULAR vote as well!

[TekGryphon]

3. Race relations and gun rights...

Forget about WVA, it's not a battle we can fight and it won't be for a long time.

[RedstDem]

5. immigration and gun laws

Dems are on the wrong side for a lot of them
Plus they blame who's in office for not having a job, unemployment is big in west by god Virginia.

[Arkana]

6. Black guy in the White House.

[tabbycat31]

7. Obama's 'war on coal'

The propaganda is real. In my last district, our race was lost in coal country, voters who have always supported Democrats in the past.

[illegaloperation]

9. These people are sad.

Cheap natural gas is causing the decline in the coal industry there.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

18. state was going rightwing a good while before that

started with Underwood victory in 1996, followed by election of Capito and Bush, McCain, Romney victories.

the 'war on coal nonsense' didn't really kick in til 2009, a good decade or so before the trend was underway.

Another factor is the media here is largely owned by rightwing conglomerates. GOP bajillionaire and senate candidate John Raese has a good chunk of the radio and newspapers in the northeast and charleston, Ogden has many, many outlets. All pushing heavily for Republicans.

the rest are useless, do-it-on-the-cheap productions with no value as journalists.

The Gazette is really the only left-leaning publication in the entire state.

[geek tragedy]

10. Coal industry owns the state, and as soon as Democrats

started publicly caring about global warming and pollution, they started voting for Republicans as President.

That, and they really don't like black guys who are better educated than they are.

[illegaloperation]

12. So what do they plan to do when King Coal eventually collapse?

Natural gas industry is displacing King Coal.

If these people are angry, they should take it out on the natural gas industry NOT Obama/EPA.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Even asking that question in public will lose you every county in WV

[illegaloperation]

16. So West Virginians have been living a lie.

Their lifestyle have to change and they are blaming Obama/Democrats/EPA instead of the natural gas industry.

[geek tragedy]

14. Guns! nt

[Jennicut]

11. Forget the south. The west is pretty much where Dems

will win Presidential elections. Win some of those states plus some of the swing states. The states of KY, TN, and WV have Democrats that are more conservative then the Repubs in my state of CT. Social conservatism has made it harder to win in that area as a Dem.

[VirginiaTarheel]

15. A mix of cultural, economic issues

As Democrats have championed culturally progressive issues, WV has become detached from the Party. WV is very socially conservative and generally doesn't support the progressive agenda. It is also a very conservative religious state, more like the Deep South. There is a lot of open racial hostility and antigay sentiment that makes it hard for many to support Democrats.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

17. Old New Deal era voters died off, leaving rightwing boomers as bulk of electorate

and the youth vote here isn't big enough to cancel them out.

[politicat]

19. Emigration.

WV has had a serious case of brain and talent drain for at least a quarter century. Those who had the prospects to get out did, leaving the ones who couldn't with further diminished resources and an ever smaller resource pool.

DH came from there, left twenty years ago and has watched those who stayed fall further and further behind. Which is tragic, because his part of the state was gorgeous. His generation had buckets of talent... But the coal and steel industry didn't want brains and the tech industry didn't want West Virginia.

[Harmony Blue]

20. West Virginia has become

a right wing dystopia where the population has shut down critical thinking and bible thumping is their way of life. The coal industry can care less about them, and they simply can't connect the dots that they have been sold out and the coal industry has cheaply purchased their land.