Letters to the Editor
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@UncoolCynthia
I don't need to read a history book, history is my major and I read them all the time. I even write them.
West Virginia broke away from Virginia because it was against slavery and wanted to stay in the union, and you know it.
I can't help it if your relatives are idiots. Mine aren't.
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Thanks Joe Buck
That comes in handy. I was just saying the same thing to the kids over pancakes at the table this morning.
I gather you have NOTHING invested in this election, then, I says with sarcasm.
I am an Obama supporter and donator, but even I see that the so-called Obamorons are complete and utter arse-slats.
To paraphase a friend: 'I really like Obama, but I hate people who love Obama.
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My Two Pennies
I also appreciated the link to Dawnt's blog, Joan. I think there is much to the educating voters premise that would be advantageous toward uniting these states, something I would very much like to see.
I stayed with this letters thread too, because there are some valid points amidst all this venom & I am, as I've always been, glad for the forum. Tough---well, it's been tough here in the salon too. Tough to stick it out with the divisive opinions. I suppose I don't get why it's so vicious. The anonymity of a computer is pretty deceptive, don't you think? I recently renewed & changed my screen name, it looks as if I'm newborn here, but I am here most days & without words.
Today I just wanted to post support for everyone here who wants competent government & speaks eloquent opinions. I was an Edwards supporter, frequently perturbed by Salon going the way of the other media & largely ignoring him. When he dropped out, just before we voted in Georgia, I had a tremendous struggle deciding between Obama & Clinton. I voted and ultimately decided that either one would adequately represent some of my beliefs. Since then I have been trying to rouse some of that passion I see here every day. In my office I listen to co-workers recite nightly television's talking points as if they were their own reasoned views and they are embarrassed to talk with any depth about these "beliefs" even when I ask softly & close my angry eyes. Because I do feel anger when people choose not to reason, whether it's for my side or some other side of any four sided box. I quickly grasp that I won't reach anyone by denigrating their method of arrival. The word ignorance implies a potentially hopeful outcome with some well-spoken information. Willfully ignorant is something sadder & more disturbing. I'm still trying to hold hopeful.
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The Sad Relevance of West Virginia
There are now two prominent stories about Democratic Party politics in West Virginia: 1960 and the Catholic Question (they passed) and 2008 and the Race Question (they failed, and not because CLinton won, but because almost a quarter of those voting admitted race was an important factor in their vote, which means the real percentage was likely higher). This is a pretty sad legacy for the Mountain state, that they have been perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a bellwhether of American bigotry for nigh on 50 years now.
Having said that, I believe the main reason for the landslide was not racial but a matter of political style. Clinton's ridiculous gas tax holiday played well here for the same reason Obama's new politics did not: West Virgina, thanks to Bobby Byrd, is at the very epicenter of the United States of Pork. Clinton has increasingly become a pork-monger as her candidacy has floundered, and West Virginia is the perfect audience for the art of the pander. It is a state with its hand perpetually stretched out for more from the Federal till. If Iowa and New Hampshire treat their disproportionate effect on the nominating process as a divine entitlement, West Virginia sees federal largesse as their divinely mandated compensation for disproportionately low standards of living, health care, and worker's safety. Clinton played to that, and while I believe Obama was just plain wrong to ignore the state, I'm happy at least that he refused to play the political party favors game.
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@ phylmom
WV WAS NOT A STATE. Since you read history and write it, surely you get that. The western part of VA seceded to avoid reconstruction that was imminent and to benefit from alliances. There was little benefit to slavery in a region with such limited farmland for tobacco or cotton.
I'm delighted to learn that your relatives and neighbors are not afflicted with the racism, sexism, and homophobia that permeate nearly everywhere I have lived and visited (there is a tiny pocket of Charleston, excepted). Perhaps you live in the panhandle, a lovely area with a much more affluent population and the only region that keeps us ahead of Mississippi in national education scores and median income. Wherever you reside, I will wish that you will continue to be immune from the ugliness and vitriol that spews from those who live in less enchanted environs. The fact Bush easily won WV in the last two elections speaks to the fear in which most residents there live of the world beyond their borders.
You are right about one thing. My neighborhood is NOT integrated in the least. It's about 90% black and 100% poor. I make $36K/year and therefore earn about three times more than the majority of my neighbors. Why my living circumstances should matter in the least to you is not my concern, but since you asked, there you have it.
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@ libertarius
You are right - WV passed the Catholic test in 1960. But I think a lot of that was because one of President Roosevelt's sons campaigned very hard for Kennedy. Is that the way you remember it happened? I don't think WV overcame it own discomfort with a Catholic candidate. It took a high recognition name and a Protestant to accomplish that. Which is why I think the fastest way to convince the wvwwc to vote for Obama is for Clinton to endorse him.
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Hey, isn't West Virginia where the Real McCoys came from?
By golly, it is. And here are the lyrics:
Want you to meet the family that's known as The Real McCoys.
From West Virginee they came to stay in sunny Californi-ay.
That's Grand Pappy Amos and the girls and the boys of the family known as the Real McCoys.
Livin' like good folks should live, as happy as kids with toys.
Ol Grand Pappy Amos is head of the clan, he roars like a lion, but he's gentle as a lamb.
His grandson Luke keeps beaming with joy, since he made miss Kate Missus Luke McCoy.
What a house keeper Kate is, she's doin' what she enjoys.
No gal can beat her when it comes to looks, the same can be said about the way she cooks.
For Grand Pappy Amos and the girls and boys of the family known as the Real McCoys.
Sharing each others sorrows, enjoyin' each others joys.
Like all other families they quarrel and fuss, but it ain't never serious,
With Grand Pappy Amos and the girls and boys of the family known as the Real McCoys.