If the US had same demographics as West Virginia, we would be SCREWED

Old and uneducated... Hillary's base... what's troubling about this demographic profile is that messaging complicated issues like healthcare reform or education reform must literally fall on deaf ears with the group.



There is nothing wrong with being older than 60 and people certainly can get by without a college education (although that's debatable), but if this country had the same demographics as West Virginia, this country would be even worse off than it is now.

I thought (we) liberals weren't supposed to crap on the poor, the elderly, the less educated, etcetera...

Now we are all about having the "hip and smart voters" (actual quote from a post here).

The poor and disadvantaged are icky! Yuck! Waiter, where's my arugula?!

My girlfriend and I were at McCoys Restaurant at Orlando Int'l Airport and I ordered arugula for the first time because Obamas's mention of it piqued my curiosity...It was actually quite good...I kept saying it reminded me of the raw spinach used in salad...

But sometimes I do like to chop it up and saute it a bit before putting it in an omelet. Very nice.

The message I got was that if we want to promote complicated issues like universal health care, an educated populace is an easier audience to win over.

Think about What's The Matter With Kansas and Frank's message in that book. He wasn't crapping on anyone and he skillfully described how people can be easily duped. The less educated, the more easily fooled.

And if you accept that folks don't know what is best for them then you open the door to government putting all kinds of limits on personal behavior... (I) see people all the time engaging in activity that (I) think is unwise, unhealthy, or just plain stupid but (I) don't want to use the powerful arm of the state to make folks do what I want...

I have read Rousseau, Marx, Lenin, and Marcuse...I never bought into the false consciousness theme...

It was that they are easily persuaded to vote AGAINST what they know is best for them.

.

It's a state made up largely of aging racists. They call themselves Democrats, but act and think like old line southern Republicans. The Obama vote proves it. 81% of those who considered race "important" voted for Hillary? Come on, if it walks like a duck, etc.

How long before the citizens of WV are called "typical white people"?

And how is your remark NOT bigoted?

and the young people leave either to join the military or to another state
where they can get a job.

There are NO jobs in WVa. Not since the late 70's when the mines shut down.

Many in WVa stay there anyway because they don't like change.

They are 10-15 years behind the times.

I was born and raised in WVa, and left because there is nothing there.

I still have land there.

I too was born and raised here and left to make a living in the early eighties. I am back
now for good and have brought work back with me. Most people stay here not because
of fear of change but to stay with family and the beauty of this land.

The very uneducated and bigoted remarks I have read lately about my home make me ill.
I would much rather put my trust in the lesser educated people here than rub shoulders
with the elitist, bigoted, better than thou people I have had to deal with in the urban
settings.

I do not know who these people are that are belittling my state but they are not acting
like Democrats. My encounters with intolerance and hate have been much more numerous
in the urban and so-called highly educated centers of America than here in WV.

This whole campaign racism crap started with attacks against the Clintons for the MLK
and LBJ comments. It was an unfair and false attack that the lesser educated Obama
supporters escalated into a general hatred of all things Clinton.

I will continue to defend WV and I will do it without the personal insults that are
directed at me for doing it.

Thanks for your pleasant posting.

I suppose these are the people who fall
prey to slick salesmanship and propaganda
and hate messages... and to memes like
rugged individualism and the American
Dream.

What's sad is that the leaders and hate
groups exploiting these people have profited
immensely at these people's expense, yet
the people haven't changed their thinking or
who they listen to.

I hate to see people exploited and harmed that
way.. through the slick con game of corporate
messaging and control tactics.. but I also
have to understand that they do have the means
to make change and do not do so.

They're getting what they voted for.. a lot of
pain and suffering and more of the same if they
vote for Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

Who am I kidding.

If the U.S. had the same demographics as West Virgina, we would have annexed Canada by force decades ago.

Some of the smartest and most open minded people I know have limited educations. IT'S REGIONAL. It stems from poverty, it's a clannish (not Klan) mentality from generations of frustration and paranoia over "big government" coming to take their land or their guns away. It's also the clergy in the rural ares that keep them from realizing more progressive ways of thinking. They live in an insulated and a lot of times, isolated state of mind. These feelings of mistrust and alienation are reinforced and perpetuated generation after generation.

What's the matter, did that big clinton victory high wear off and now the truth has set in?

and made a good life for their children, so THEY could get ahead and prosper, and this is how they are looked at by the "Democratic" Party? If that's the case then the Democratic Party NEEDS to be fractured and quickly.

The "Democratic" Party now thinks the people of West Virginia are too stupid to understand the important issues because they lack advanced education? Give me a fucking break.

I used to find it so bizarre that 10-20 years after the mines closed,
a former coal miner would still be unemployed.
They would say - I was laid off from the mines.

But no new job.

But then again there ARE no jobs in WVA, no industry, nothing since
the 70's.

And unlike Oregon and other places (yes far more educated, better climate, ocean)
young people leave WVa in droves.

definitely undereducated - 50% polled they believe Obama to hold the same views as Wright. Now tell me how that does not come across as ignorant.

The interesting thing is - the states where racism still prospers, are the states that do the worst economically. The states that have done the most to progress towards breaking down racial barriers have prospered economically.

Education is key.

"If that's the case then the Democratic Party NEEDS to be fractured and quickly."

and maybe you should find a new party.

Ferchrissakes, look at the data regarding working class statistics and how their jobs have left the country since the 1990's. Guess what happened?

Bill Clinton signed NAFTA. Hillary Clinton LIES when she says she was against it. White House records show she was the "closer" at events in the White House where they had orchestrated pro-NAFTA meetings.

Bill Clinton signed the China MFN status trade bill. Hillary Clinton VOTED FOR IT. That sent thousands of jobs overseas, directly smacking down the working class.

Are these people paying the fuck attention? Apparently not, and perhaps it has to do EXACTLY with the demographic that West Virginia (and Kentucky and elsewhere) comprise. Are they bitter? YES.

As in Michigan, 20-something college graduates seek opportunities in more liberal communities and more cosmopolitian regions.

The West Virginia demographic represents that exactly. When you can get out of Dodge, get the hell out. It's a tragedy, but it's everywhere.

Open persecution of gays, etc.