Letters to the Editor
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They won't leave you behind
Luckilly Salon posters are not in charge of Obama's campaign. As I'm getting blue in the face saying (but which, luckilly, the Washing Post is saying for me in large degree) the biggest single danger to the Democratic Party in Appalacia is not anything the Obama campaign did or didn't do. To pretend that there's a potential he wouldn't reach out to the voters of those states is as best a misunderstanding of the entire premise of his campaign, at worst disingenuous. But that one's easy to write off to, "wait and see."
The biggest single danger to the party is the emerging Third Party Candidacy of Hillary Clinton, who commands almost half of the Democratic Party electorate. Now before anyone gets me wrong, I was not an "Obama guy" as of the Pennsylvania debate, which I thought Hillary won. Since then however it's become clear to me that her first priority is her own candidacy and the Democratic Party is a distant second. There is a growing backlash of Hillary supporters believing the media, the Democratic Party and Obama himself all seek to disenfranchise everyone who has voted or will vote for Hillary.
After Pennsylvania and especially after Indiana and North Carolina the Clinton campaign faced a choice about how to campaign. Chances were slim that they would win the nomination, but they still commanded nearly 50% of the popular vote-more if you counted FL and MI, so getting out of the race would have been premature. The choice was between staying in the race and promoting the Democratic Party's contrasts to John McCain or to fan the flames of the emerging backlash by continuing to play into the "disenfranchisement" narrative. Her "hard working...white" comment 2 weeks ago and today's press releases overtly claiming misogyny by the media and the Obama campaign show which road she chose.
Appealing to white working class Appalachian voters may be difficult for a Harvard-minted black man, but it's far more difficult when an opponent in your own party has rested all her hopes on enabling and abetting a backlash against you.
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This Walsh blog post now available with Subtextual Translation Simulcast! (TM)
I love the woman's letter, and she makes great points with passion (I come from Georgia, a state that gets tarred with similar brushes, and often deservedly so).
But that doesn't change the fact that the subtext of this post from Ms. Walsh is:
"See? SEE??? I was right! I was right! My candidate may be losing, but I was right! Hillary and I are convinced she has a better chance of winning the general, and look -- here's proof! Incontrovertible! From an actual hillbil-- er, West Virginian! DON'T YOU SEE????"
Which, in a way, is just as condescending to the West Virginian woman as anything Obama has ever said or done. Maybe more.
Put another way, I'll ask Ms. Walsh just one question: Show us the plane ticket from YOUR last five trips to West Virginia. Tell us about YOUR rural family members. You're the webzine editor/San Francisco resident/card-carrying member of the liberal elite. Championing the forsaken rural voter is a bit of an odd fit for you, isn't it?
Or maybe I'm just making erroneous assumptions about you based on the facts of your current circumstances. But hey, I grew up a Georgia hayseed. I can't be expected to do any better, I guess.
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nope, still don't feel it
Still have no compassion for a group of people that were born into all the possibility in the world, chose not to keep up with the changing times, chose not to better themselves by reading books or taking a class at the community center every once in a while,but instead prefer to blame the success of peoples they used to oppress as the root of their lack of progress.
Libraries are free to everyone. It's no use tryin' to shoot the rats at the dump before sun down anyways.
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the facts don't bear joan's propoganda
It is true their are racist voters who will not vote for a black man. this is true. It is a fact he won't get those votes. Nothing he can do about it.
But to combine the racist vote with the rural vote is a huge mistake. then again, to combine the white vote to the rural AND racist vote is a mistake. These broud charaterizations give rural white voters a bad name. And the facts don't pan out, joan.
you can't compare the racist west virgina voters to rural midwest voters. The facts don't pan out. he won iowa. He won kansas. he won missiouri. He won idaho. Miswestern states. they are not racists. race had nothing to do with those votes, as they shouldn't. they were white. they happened to be rural. not connected entities. I know you republcains like to compine and create false narratives and false voting patterns. In this case the facts do not play out.
Pa is a huge catholic state. There was racism in that vote, we saw it in the exit polls. Same with west virgina, to a differant extent.
But to combine the west virgina/pa vote with the midwest voters, I think does midwest voters a huge diservice. and lups them in with west virgina. Clever ploy. But transparnet as the facts and votes to not play into your propognada and flase fake narratives.
I say we leave west virgina pa and new hampshire (for supporting clinton only after she cried) to their fate. Call them what they are. Whether it be racist or not racist or midwest or western. But don't try and be slick and combine the racist vote the midwestern vote AND the white vote. The facts don't play into yoru false narrative.
he can't win racist white sourthern votes. Or catholics. That's it. WE CAN LEAVE THESE PEOPLE BEHIND as they choose to be left behind. If you say you won't vote for someone due to race, yoru not an american. I don't hear obama supporters saying they won't vote for a women, for all your people's false claims of sexism
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Little Blue Dot!
This is a wonderful heartfelt letter. I totally agree with her. Name calling, condescending attitudes do no solve problems or build bridges. We need to start taking personal responsibility for what we say and how we act. It is time to grow up!
My mom was from Wheeling, West Virginia and my father was from Kentucky so I grew up with the prejudices and attitudes that they lived by. However, I do not think that Appalachia is a bunch of stupid people. My father had an IQ of 145 and was a Colonel in the US Army. My mom owned her own business and was quite successful.
These are hard working salt of the earth people in time people come around and do the right thing.
Thank you little blue dot!
hart2hart in CA.