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Southern WV does have a noticeable black population. In fact when the liberal Anthony Bourdain did a segment in WV to explore Trump country he was looking for racism but found the blacks in southern WV very integrated into their communities. NOrthern WV is more uniformly white and has a lot of white ethnics especially Italians, Germans, and Polish.
ONe of WV's 3 Congressmen, Alex Mooney, is Hispanic despite the state having a very tiny Hispanic population. Mooney is also very conservative and supports the wall and is among the most pro-life and pro-gun people in Congress, the way West Virginians want it.
Ah, noticeable. Like 65,000. Like 3.4% whereas the Southern States like LA and AL have 10X the percentage and the South as a whole probably 20% or 6X that amount.
Let's be real. WV is low population anyway...and that makes the tiny numbers look even smaller. There were some Black Coal Miners and I remember driving through one area where I noticed some black folks living. But for a guy in mid (Webster County) to have seen ONE in his lifetime sorta tells the tale.
I'm sure things are changing around the edges - my point is that "friends from WV" and their outlook on the situation is not really relevant being as these were not slave settled areas.
I can't say that I disagree with you regarding Confederate. I do not like that those Confederates got off so light. There should have been a war tribunal. There should have been a great account taken in terms of war crimes. There should have been some very harsh punishments handed down.
Not punishing those particular traitors involved allowed those seeds of Confederate admiration to flourish. I say the Civil War downgraded to a type of cold war. There was a surrender and a ceasefire. However, the Confederate dream kept living on.
I think you're right. It's really been the equivalent of a 150-year cold war, because tens of millions of the people here refuse to accept that they got their asses handed to them. There's a huge subculture here that seems to think the South actually won, but that somehow nobody noticed.
We allowed them to walk away with their false pride and their false historical narrative, and they've been crowing "South's gonna rise agin" from the tops of their broken down, moldy old chicken coops ever since. Instead of allowing the treasonous scum back into the Union under very strict terms, he practically welcomed them back with cake, ice cream, and door prizes. I understand he did it for political reasons, but in retrospect, it was an enormous error. He should have either crushed them under his heel or let them go. We'd be better off without them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WaldoKitty
Yawn.
Democrats still can't believe that most of the country does not agree with them.
And, here we add still another entry to the infinitely long list of facts that are exactly the opposite of what you think they are.
I know that probably makes sense in that fantasy-alternate reality universe you've created for yourself, but here on Planet Earth (where the rest of us make our homes), registered Democrats outnumber registered republicans nationally by roughly 35%. Since 2000, there have been 9 congressional elections and 5 presidential elections. In those 9 congressional elections, Democratic candidates have received 59,639,213 more votes than Republican candidates, and in the 5 presidential elections, Democrats have received 14,932,899 more votes than Republican candidates. That's a total of 74,572,112 more votes for Democrats than Republicans on a national level so far in this century, just short of 9,000,000 per election. Democratic candidates received more of the popular vote than Republican candidates in 3 of the 5 presidential elections.
In addition, polls have consistently shown for years that Democratic policies are significantly more popular with voters than Republican policies (which basically all boil down to nothing more than "give rich people as much money as possible").
So, no - you don't have any idea what you're talking about, as usual. There are significantly more Democrats than Republicans in America, and Democratic policies are significantly more popular with the electorate than Republican policies. The only things keeping the Republican party viable are gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the baked-in advantage that conservative rural states have in the Senate and the Electoral College.
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Originally Posted by green_mariner
I remember when Barnes ran against Perdue. The Confederate flag was a major political issue. This past election in Georgia has made me lose faith in the politics of Georgia. Kemp was as corrupt as can be, and he still won. Maybe this is what many in Georgia wanted.
That's exactly what many (if not most) in Georgia want, as long as the guy stealing votes is white.
States like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota have remained politically purple, while southern states are still very Republican. I know the Midwest is trending Republican, while a good portion of the U.S. South is trending Democratic, but the Republican trend in the Midwest seems to be reversing or staying stagnant post-Trump.
Based on the demographics of the U.S. South, I'm shocked that the region is still redder than the Midwest. For example: States like Georgia and Texas are VERY diverse, but Democrats have a hard time winning statewide elections in those states. But some very white states like Wisconsin and Minnesota have no issue with getting Democrats elected in their states. Even lily white Montana (which isn't in the Midwest) elects Democrats. How does a very black state like Mississippi get a white supremacist elected statewide? I will never understand the U.S. South.
Better question, why is every place in the U. S. becoming less republican?
Rural % of the vote is unusually high in the South vs US overall.
In addition, 1/3rd of Nashville are transplants, often from blue states, who came for better opportunities, and hardly wish to see their new region emulate the anti-business attitudes of many blue states. That is largely why the urban blue edge in the south < US edge in same demographic areas.
Instead of hoping demographics save them, Dems should study the smaller govt model Dems 50 plus years ago successfully campaigned on and believed in, and emulate them.
This is why the Republicans' strategy in every election is to suppress votes. If more people vote, more people will vote Democrats.
.
I have a challenge for you. Suppress my vote. Let's see how you do it. This how it works. I get up on election day, take a shower, eat breakfast, head out the door, drive to the polling place, cast my vote and still make it to work on time. How do you stop me from doing even one of these?
I have a challenge for you. Suppress my vote. Let's see how you do it. This how it works. I get up on election day, take a shower, eat breakfast, head out the door, drive to the polling place, cast my vote and still make it to work on time. How do you stop me from doing even one of these?
There are many ways.
One way would be to do a computer check to see if there are any other voters registered anywhere else in the United States under the name HappyRider. If there are, I strike your name from the voter rolls on the grounds that you are not eligible to vote in both places. You don't find out, of course, until you show up on election day. In most states, you can then file a provisional ballot, but not every state allows this - and even if they do, you may never know whether your ballot was eventually counted. And even if your state does allow provisional ballots, you may not know that - and if the election official "forgets" to inform you, you don't vote.
Another way might be to check your ID against your voter registration. If you're in an "exact match" state, every single thing must match exactly, or you are not allowed to vote. Let's say your name is Happy Rider, Jr. You're registered to vote under the name "Happy Rider, Jr." - with the period at the end. But your driver's license identifies you as "Happy Rider, Jr" - no period. No period, no exact match; no exact match, no vote.
Or maybe there's someone with a felony conviction who has the same or very similar name. So your name is scratched.
Maybe you moved since the last election, and you sent in a change of address with your new information - but for some mysterious reason, the Secretary of State's office neglected to update the info. Oops, no vote today!
Or, an organization affiliated with the other party sends out a notice in the mail to everyone registered in your party, with detailed instructions on how to fill out and mail a mail-in ballot. You follow the instructions to the letter, but unfortunately, the organization has "accidentally" given you the wrong date for the deadline to mail them in. They told you, for example, that the deadline was 3 weeks before election day, so you mailed it in 2 weeks prior to election day just to be safe - only to find later (maybe) that the deadline was actually 1 week. Oops! Oh, well, accidents happen. You can try again next year.
Or, maybe the helpful organization sends you detailed information on your polling place - the exact address, a map, even a photo of the building. And you get there and find out that's not your polling place at all. And you're 83 years old, and you spent 2 hours taking the bus to get here, and it's cold and rainy, and you have no idea how to get to the right place. Maybe you figure it out, or maybe you just give up and go home.
Maybe the Secretary of State closes down a half dozen polling places in your area, including the one you've been voting at for 10 years. And again, you don't find out until you get there. Or you get to the right place, and find that there's a 3-hour line because they only have 4 voting machines instead of the 20 they always had before. Or they have plenty of machines, but for some reason, nobody brought any of the electrical cords for the machines. Or they run out of ballots by 1 PM.
That's just a few, off the top of my head. And every single one of these things has actually happened - most of them many, many times, over a period of many years, and for some reason almost without exception only to registered Democrats or voters who live in predominantly Democratic districts in states with a Republican governor and/or Republican Secretary of State.
And there are many more ways than this; I just got tired of typing. The point is, voter suppression is very common in Republican states, and there are a million tricks they can use. It's foolish and naive to pretend it doesn't exist, and is not a real factor in elections.
the Midwest is a swing state on national elections but in local politics, they vote generally Republican.
Wisconsin: State Senate is majority Republican State Assembly is majority Republican
Michigan: State Senate Majority Republican Michigan House of Representative is Republican
Pennsylvania: State Senate is majority Republican Pennsylvania house of Representative is Republican
Ohio: State Senate GOP and house of representative is GOP
Minnesota is very different than the other midwest it has been a very liberal state for decades: State Senate is Republican and house of representative is Democrat.
This is why it's clear you really don't understand gerrymandering at all. Let's take those states that you say vote Republican on a statewide level.
Wisconsin: 53% of the voters voted for Democratic legislators, but the Democrats only won 36% of the seats - largely because of gerrymandering.
Michigan: Democrats won 52% of the votes, but only 47% of the seats. Gerrymandering again.
Pennsylvania: In this one, Republicans did win 51% of the votes, but that slight majority gave them 76% of the legislative seats. Gerrymandering.
Ohio: Republicans captured 50% of the vote in House races, but took 63% of the seats. They won 52% of the state senate votes, but 76% of the seats. Gerrymandering.
So, no - the people of those states are not swinging republican at all. If it weren't for rigged electoral maps, Wisconsin and Michigan would have Democratic advantages in the state legislatures, and Pennsylvania and Ohio would be split pretty much down the middle.
About 90% of the responses in this thread seem more concerned about painting the other "team" in a negative light than they are with answering OP's question. And sadly the OP seems OK with those sorts of answers. I'm not quite sure what the point of this thread is.
I think the question should be why the South is still so conservative. If anything, they are the extreme ones.
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