Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

LiberalElite

(14,691 posts)
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 08:29 PM Oct 2015

WaPo: In rural America, a startling prospect: Voters Obama lost look to Sanders

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-rural-america-a-startling-prospect-voters-obama-lost-look-to-sanders/2015/10/04/5465ce22-6883-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html

-snip-
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Shelley Brannon, 62, can sum up the Obama presidency with three words. Well, three words and an exclamation.

“He screwed us,” said Brannon, a coal miner from Wise County, Va., as he sat outside a rally for the United Mine Workers of America. “Man, he screwed us.”

He shook his head under a camouflage hat that matched his camouflage UMWA T-shirt, and he described his fantasy of dumping nuclear waste in the yards of environmentalists, “if they think coal’s so bad.” He mulled over the mistake he says the UMWA made in 2008, when it endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Then he explained why he would probably be voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the next Democratic primary.
-snip-
27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
WaPo: In rural America, a startling prospect: Voters Obama lost look to Sanders (Original Post) LiberalElite Oct 2015 OP
And he will continue to do so, as long as he gets paid for it Demeter Oct 2015 #1
Um, what? Where did that come from? nt Electric Monk Oct 2015 #3
I wondered too. nt LiberalElite Oct 2015 #6
I'm referring to the Empty Suit, the Lame Duck in the WH Demeter Oct 2015 #8
Empty suit? dreamnightwind Oct 2015 #18
voters handmade34 Oct 2015 #2
I was ordered to K and R this post by some dude named "Manny". MindfulOne Oct 2015 #4
you want I should kick your loving compliant ass, MindfulOne? Skittles Oct 2015 #9
K&R..... daleanime Oct 2015 #5
For WaPo the article brings up some worthwhile points if you read all of it. I'd like to appalachiablue Oct 2015 #7
My father took us, our whole family, on a trip through parts of Kentucky and West Virginia JDPriestly Oct 2015 #17
The Appalachian mountains that run from Maine to Alabama in the US are old, magnificent hills appalachiablue Oct 2015 #24
Thanks for the beautiful pictures and memories. JDPriestly Oct 2015 #25
Yes! sabrina 1 Oct 2015 #10
I'm a rural Obama voter who quickly found it that "Yes We Can!" actually means "No We Won't!", Zorra Oct 2015 #11
"Yes We Did!" handmade34 Oct 2015 #15
Kicked and recommended. Uncle Joe Oct 2015 #12
Thoughtful article. aidbo Oct 2015 #13
Like I have said before. WHEN CRABS ROAR Oct 2015 #21
I don't think people who believe in the "war on coal" will be too pleased with Sanders either MisterP Oct 2015 #14
K&R azmom Oct 2015 #16
That article is fair but odd dreamnightwind Oct 2015 #19
The most effective way to screw the American worker is to enact trade deals. Enthusiast Oct 2015 #20
SORRY MAN! but COAL IS BAD ! ! n/t vkkv Oct 2015 #22
A redneck rury Oct 2015 #23
Exactly. Ali, Sanders is advocate of coal. Ironically Obama helped still_one Oct 2015 #27
Typical WP Obama bashing. Does Brannon believe that Bernie believes coal is the future? still_one Oct 2015 #26
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
1. And he will continue to do so, as long as he gets paid for it
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 09:01 PM
Oct 2015

If he starts doing it for free, then we will know something deeper about his character. Cheney-like, I'd call it.

dreamnightwind

(4,775 posts)
18. Empty suit?
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:39 AM
Oct 2015

Dunno about that, I think he's quite intelligent. He certainly wasn't the change candidate he campaigned as, another statist corporatist, and for that reason he lost me. Hillary would have been about the same, in my opinion, though I greatly preferred and worked to elect Obama in 2008.

In normal times I wouldn't be so hard on Obama, but his election was the result of a huge outpouring of people wanting NOT more of the same, which they perceived as Hillary, we wanted to reregulate the financial industry, prosecute the banksters, claw back money they gambled and lost, and force the banks to take the pain, not the homeowners. Also we wanted a reversal of the middle east militarism (got many more years of protracted war instead, and an escalation of remote-control drone killings and the surveillance and police state), plus he campaigned on a public option healthcare plan (which was clearly a path toward a single payer plan) with no mandate, then quickly turned around to pass Romney/Heritage/ObamaCare instead, never even making the case for or fighting for a Medicare For All plan which is the kind of reform we really need.

 

MindfulOne

(227 posts)
4. I was ordered to K and R this post by some dude named "Manny".
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 09:15 PM
Oct 2015

I'm a lover, not a hater, so I complied without complaint.

appalachiablue

(41,048 posts)
7. For WaPo the article brings up some worthwhile points if you read all of it. I'd like to
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 09:21 PM
Oct 2015

have a dollar for every time I've heard Washingtonians, people from all over the US and world, make negative comments about a tree cutter or a few school teachers in the area who were from West Virginia or Appalachia in the last 20+ years. Could pay off the mortgage.

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
17. My father took us, our whole family, on a trip through parts of Kentucky and West Virginia
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 02:00 AM
Oct 2015

in the Appalachians. It was beautiful back then. Just beautiful.

The houses sometimes seemed to be built so tilted on the hillsides that I thought they could fall off any time.

appalachiablue

(41,048 posts)
24. The Appalachian mountains that run from Maine to Alabama in the US are old, magnificent hills
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 02:11 PM
Oct 2015

with much natural, rugged beauty. The scenery of Kentucky and West Virginia in central Appalachia is stunning in the fall with the autumn harvest and brilliant foliage. In spring the woodlands and bounty of wild flowers and dogwood, redbud and rhododendron trees bring new life that inspired composer Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring.









"I would not be where I now am, I would not have some of the responsibilities I now bear, if it had not been for the people of West Virginia." President John F. Kennedy, June 20, 1963.

In 1960, West Virginia, a citadel of labor gave JFK the Democratic nomination after he campaigned throughout the state's communities gaining the trust and appreciation of the people.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Winning West Virginia- JFK's Primary Campaign.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Exhibits/Past-Exhibits/Winning-West-Virginia.aspx

Zorra

(27,670 posts)
11. I'm a rural Obama voter who quickly found it that "Yes We Can!" actually means "No We Won't!",
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 09:56 PM
Oct 2015

happy to be voting for Bernie, because after Bernie gets elected it's gonna be all "Yes We Did!"

handmade34

(22,755 posts)
15. "Yes We Did!"
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 10:28 PM
Oct 2015

isn't good enough… it takes "Yes We Can!"... "Yes We Did!" and then "Yes We will Keep Working and Fighting Everyday!" to continue to support ideals, keep feet to the fire and not let up until real change happens…

 

aidbo

(2,328 posts)
13. Thoughtful article.
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 10:14 PM
Oct 2015

Can't wait for the debate!

He has won elections in Vermont, a white, rural, gun-owning state, as a socialist. The social-issue “distractions” bemoaned by red-state Democrats have seemed to bounce right off his armor. (He has taken mixed positions on gun control, supporting a ban on assault rifles, for instance, but opposing the Brady Bill.) In the end, is the white guy who voted for him in Vermont any different than the white guy in West Virginia or Kentucky or Ohio who was told to blame liberals for his problems?


“What I’ve found in Vermont and around the country is that we go to people and say, ‘Look, we do have differences,’?” Sanders said. “?‘I believe in gay marriage. I’m not going to change your view if you don’t. I believe climate change is absolutely real, and some of you do not. But how many of you think we should give hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the richest 1 percent?’?”

Conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has made a similar argument — that his party can win, with no changes to its message, if more evangelical voters are inspired to come out. Bolstering Sanders’s case are his strong numbers in independent polls. A national Quinnipiac survey last month found him polling marginally better against leading Republican candidates than Clinton did. A Marquette University poll last week indicated that Sanders is running just as strong as Clinton in Wisconsin, home to some of the white voters who have abandoned the Democrats in off years.

WHEN CRABS ROAR

(3,813 posts)
21. Like I have said before.
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:14 PM
Oct 2015

Now is the time for a real progressive populist movement, but the message needs to be clear and not overly complex and it needs to be repeated over and over to drive it home into the minds of the people.

Then Bernie will win.

dreamnightwind

(4,775 posts)
19. That article is fair but odd
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:45 AM
Oct 2015

It features a disgruntled coal-miner who is angry at environmentalists. The most that guy can hope for from Bernie re his employment is two-year severance pay with job retraining. Maybe Bernie could push his infrastructure jobs program through, or a massive public works program to transition rapidly to clean energy, hiring people displaced by closing the extraction industries.

I don't knnow, I just found it odd that they used a guy in his position to talk about people screwed by Obama who are looking to Bernie. People working in industries that are being outsourced would have been a much more appropriate choice.

rury

(1,021 posts)
23. A redneck
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 08:32 PM
Oct 2015

anti-environmentalist who never would have voted for a black man anyway.
I'm sure what he likes is Sanders' skin color and pro-gun stance.

still_one

(91,942 posts)
27. Exactly. Ali, Sanders is advocate of coal. Ironically Obama helped
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 05:20 PM
Oct 2015

spread the myth of "clean coal

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»Bernie Sanders»WaPo: In rural America, a...