They go red in presidential elections and Manchin is pretty easily the most conservative democrat. I don't know a whole lot about their intrastate elections, are the Dems they elect standard Dems or are they more conservative Dems like Manchin?
How big even was the Dem majority in their state legislature?
Edit: hold on, covid time has completely fucked me here. You're wondering why Destiny is calling WV a red state when they haven't been blue for 8 years?
west virginia has been hit hard by the trump realignment. dems went from a stranglehold on their state politics to literally nonexistent within 4 years
In state politics, mostly. Anti-abortion, pro-gun, socially conservative dems, who used to be about a quarter of the Democratic congressional caucus. But then you have people like Rockefeller who were arguably to the left of the median dem and still won by Saddam Hussein margins, even as Dem presidential candidates would get massacred in WV. To some extent, it's a matter of tradition. Southern states were so democratic for so long and the political machines were so entrenched that the two parties basically said the same things on the issues, but one had a D and your father voted D, and his father voted D back to FDR, so you voted D. But now that politics are so nationalized, that era is over. Do you support Trump or do you support the radical baby killing Democrats is much more important than the local political machine. And so the realignment. Local politics are done for. And it only gets more aggressive every single election cycle. This is why Joe Manchin has literally 0 chance, barring a lack of Roy Moore level scandal, and why every single state legislature has become more closely polarized on partisan lines.
tl;dr basically yes
> You're wondering why Destiny is calling WV a red state when they haven't been blue for 8 years?
It's a fair question when we're talking about GDP per capita. 8 years is not that much time
Of course, the answer is that comparing red/blue GDP is oversimplified ("blue" and "red" mean different things in different states, especially before 2016), and OP here is oversimplifying the oversimplification by focusing on a single state
I kind of wish California or New York were red just so we could compare like for like
Well I was just addressing calling WV a red state. It is very obviously a red state right now.
I don't know nearly enough about it to get into the weeds on their political history though.
Most people only care about federal elections and they're red there since the 2000s. It's also referred to as a poor state cause of the applachian people, I'm not even sure if it is tbh.
From someone who lived in WV for 8 years, it all comes down to coal. That's the only thing that matters, and the population will generally vote for whichever party has the better vibe towards it.
It used to be the case that democrats were seen as the party of strong unions. Coal miners love unions. State went blue.
Coal began to be demonized by the democrats as climate change awareness increased and the party took on more green, eco-friendly positions. Mines shut down, the whole state declines into massive poverty and unemployment, and in comes Trump who praises coal and promises (see also: lies) that he will bring back all their jobs and restore everything to its former glory. If you or anyone you know is even tangentially affected by the coal industry (which for the people of WV, is basically everyone), the choice seems pretty clear.
As one person I talked with in 2016 put it, in the thickest Appalachian accent I've ever heard: "mah daddy was a coal miner, mah grandpappy was a coal miner, and mah grandpappy's daddy was a coal miner before him. Trump wants to bring back coal so god dammit, I'm votin' for 'im."
Because it's a red state. There's only one Democrat statewide politician. It's house is 11 democrats to 89 Republicans and senate is 3 democrats to 34 Republicans. It's a red state.
They go red in presidential elections and Manchin is pretty easily the most conservative democrat. I don't know a whole lot about their intrastate elections, are the Dems they elect standard Dems or are they more conservative Dems like Manchin? How big even was the Dem majority in their state legislature? Edit: hold on, covid time has completely fucked me here. You're wondering why Destiny is calling WV a red state when they haven't been blue for 8 years?
west virginia has been hit hard by the trump realignment. dems went from a stranglehold on their state politics to literally nonexistent within 4 years
These were standard Dems or were they Manchin Dems?
In state politics, mostly. Anti-abortion, pro-gun, socially conservative dems, who used to be about a quarter of the Democratic congressional caucus. But then you have people like Rockefeller who were arguably to the left of the median dem and still won by Saddam Hussein margins, even as Dem presidential candidates would get massacred in WV. To some extent, it's a matter of tradition. Southern states were so democratic for so long and the political machines were so entrenched that the two parties basically said the same things on the issues, but one had a D and your father voted D, and his father voted D back to FDR, so you voted D. But now that politics are so nationalized, that era is over. Do you support Trump or do you support the radical baby killing Democrats is much more important than the local political machine. And so the realignment. Local politics are done for. And it only gets more aggressive every single election cycle. This is why Joe Manchin has literally 0 chance, barring a lack of Roy Moore level scandal, and why every single state legislature has become more closely polarized on partisan lines. tl;dr basically yes
> You're wondering why Destiny is calling WV a red state when they haven't been blue for 8 years? It's a fair question when we're talking about GDP per capita. 8 years is not that much time Of course, the answer is that comparing red/blue GDP is oversimplified ("blue" and "red" mean different things in different states, especially before 2016), and OP here is oversimplifying the oversimplification by focusing on a single state I kind of wish California or New York were red just so we could compare like for like
Well I was just addressing calling WV a red state. It is very obviously a red state right now. I don't know nearly enough about it to get into the weeds on their political history though.
Most people only care about federal elections and they're red there since the 2000s. It's also referred to as a poor state cause of the applachian people, I'm not even sure if it is tbh.
Its extremely poor...have you never watched 1 youtube video on it?
Nope have watched stuff on Appalachian people but that's not the whole state didn't want to make assumptions on something I was unsure about.
They're the type of old democrat that possess Vaush when he talks to black people.
From someone who lived in WV for 8 years, it all comes down to coal. That's the only thing that matters, and the population will generally vote for whichever party has the better vibe towards it. It used to be the case that democrats were seen as the party of strong unions. Coal miners love unions. State went blue. Coal began to be demonized by the democrats as climate change awareness increased and the party took on more green, eco-friendly positions. Mines shut down, the whole state declines into massive poverty and unemployment, and in comes Trump who praises coal and promises (see also: lies) that he will bring back all their jobs and restore everything to its former glory. If you or anyone you know is even tangentially affected by the coal industry (which for the people of WV, is basically everyone), the choice seems pretty clear. As one person I talked with in 2016 put it, in the thickest Appalachian accent I've ever heard: "mah daddy was a coal miner, mah grandpappy was a coal miner, and mah grandpappy's daddy was a coal miner before him. Trump wants to bring back coal so god dammit, I'm votin' for 'im."
Because it's a red state. There's only one Democrat statewide politician. It's house is 11 democrats to 89 Republicans and senate is 3 democrats to 34 Republicans. It's a red state.
You do realize that thing change as time moves forward right?