Posted on 04/17/2016 5:27:13 PM PDT by markomalley
here isn’t much Jody Bostic believes in these days.
The government has abandoned him, he feels. Local coal mines have laid him off so many times he opened a T-shirt store to make a living. Big-city media treat him and his neighbors like know-nothings.
His remaining hope: Donald Trump will become president and use his business skills to bring jobs to this Appalachian mountain county. “Hey, in this county, things are going downhill. People are getting laid off. People are leaving,” says the 39-year-old former miner. “If Trump don’t get it, it will be another blow.”
Mr. Trump won Buchanan County with 69.7% of the vote in the March 1 Republican primary, the highest percentage vote he has collected in any U.S. county so far. A close look at the white, working-class enclave, which is in Virginia’s southwest, provides a clearer picture of why Mr. Trump inspires supporters and poses problems for anti-Trump GOP strategists.
Voters here say Mr. Trump understands their frustration and will fight the Washington establishment on their behalf. In an area awash in uncertainty—Will mines remain open? Will the river flood? Must the young leave to find work?—he is a reassuring presence, someone who has visited their living rooms for years via television.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Free beer and vittles.
That region has been struggling for decades, and the war on coal has hit them especially hard. Try to rise above partisan politics at least enough to have a little sympathy.
End the ridiculous war on coal. Jobs!
No one will help these people. The struggle to find some sort of work but are hated as “crackers” by blacks and environmentalist whites. Coal isn’t coming back. During the election, Republicans will talk “pretty” and do nothing while progressives will promise to totally do away with coal and oil and promise “retraining” which will be worthless and at best qualify them to work at McDonalds. Same thing that happened to steelworkers, miners and basic manufacturing workers. Screw both lying parties.
You are an embarrassment to Free Republic.
You are behaving like a child.
A Democrat governor of West Virginia once famously told out-of-work West Virginians to “hit the hillbilly highway to North Carolina” if they were unhappy there. A lot of them did. Not everybody is able to just pull up stakes and go, though.
And you call yourself a veteran? YOU are a disgrace to yourself, to the military, and to the notion that you ever served for this country.
Coal MUST make a comeback.
Millions have been well spent in “clean coal” rendering. The power plants of the Rust Belt NEED that clean coal. Many coal sources power plants have been shut down. We are rolling the dice that we won’t have rolling outages (in a abnormally hot summer or extended artic blast winter.
The “war on coal” was the green excuse to throw BILLIONS of tax payer dollar at democratic donors who were “developing” solar. Til it failed
The greens have also mortally wounded nuclear. Westinghouse is fading fast.
And I say all of this from the land of coal AND fracking, SW PA. We have the natural resources. We have the workforce and the technology, it’s a damn SHAME that politicians have sold US out.
Mr. Trump is our LAST BEST HOPE!
“Coal MUST make a comeback.”
You have to understand that we now have an over supply of natural gas.
I’m afraid that coal will never come back to the way it was.
2DV has heard that the hills of Appalachia are “not true conservatives!”
You know what I think? If there was such a being as the “true conservative” he would be screaming “burn the GOP down!”
I am sure 2DV likes “the poors” in their place working for scraps with him screaming that they can be replaced by foreigners that will work harder.
Get rid of the absurd green regulations and coal will again be cheaper than natural gas for us. Liquify the excess natural gas and sell it to Europe. Undercut both OPEC and Putin. Burn the, more expensive to ship far, coal here. Quadruple win for us.
The U.S. can finally sell natural gas abroad, and that could change everything
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3421975/posts
Amen! The "war on coal" is another Obama project that makes America weaker. And to anyone who thinks "globalisation" can't happen to you - I know plenty of people right here in New York City whose white collar and professional jobs have been off-shored. Off-shoring is not just for blue-collar workers, non-professionals, rural, urban, or any other subset of Americans - the global elite have plans for all of us, and we'd better stick together.
You do understand that the guy who put the nail in their coffins by taking away jobs that allowed them to earn their livings made the "free beer and vittles" his whole policy - why slam those that actually want to work? Is that the new tactic from Cruz - do the Chuckles Biden bit about salient complaints because it's easier than actually making a good argument? Those in Appalachia seem to notice the difference between Obama/Hillary and Trump - and also know who is beholden to no one else so he won't be handcuffed except by a petty Senate and House which will have to be kicked into shape via fear for their careers.
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