Letters to the Editor
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It's about education, and little else
I was born and raised in Prestonsburg, Ky--a true native Appalachian--and can say that I have seen the same fate meted out to fellow Appalachians that has been meted out to Kerry and Obama based solely on educational level.
It's not held against you that you go to school, get a degree or even an advanced degree, but you must go out believing exactly as you did going in, or else you've committed the sin of "getting above your raising" and obviously have a weak spine and no sense of self.
Obama speaks from a place of education, and Clinton speaks from the gut. She speaks in terms of conventional wisdom, while Obama is brimming with statistics and the psychology of American classes.
Having grown up in Arkansas, Clinton instinctively knows how to put forth an educated opinion that still resonates with her roots, while Obama, having grown up all over the world, is essentially rootless--a thing of utmost suspicion to any Appalachian.
It is a fine, fine line--and one that is poorly understood unless you are from a rural area. The Democratic candidate fails to see how the Appalachian can't see that helping across socioeconomic lines brings everyone up, but the clannishness of your average Appalachian instinctively refuses that argument.
Until you can look at the area and understand the self-defeating ways that we have been availed to so much welfare, but remained so impoverished, you'll never understand how to sell a candidate here.
This is an area of fatalism, and you can't sow the seeds of hope like you can elsewhere.