Replies

Do you recall the Roger Coleman case back in the early 1990's? The national and even international media painted this as a case where a bunch of ignorant hillbillies were going to send an innocent man to the electric chair because he was so articulate he didn't fit in to the community.

Roger Coleman was from my hometown, Grundy, and he raped and murdered Wanda Dotson at her home about seven miles from my house.

So yes, I do remember his case and how the media slammed us all as a bunch of ignorant hillbillies who couldn't give him a fair trial. Needless to say, it gave me great pleasure to see that last minute DNA test finally prove his guilt just before he fried in Virginia's electirc chair.

My point is that we're not a bunch of ignorant hillibillies in keeping with the stereotypes, BUT politically speaking, the Democratic element in that part of Appalachia is about 30 years behind the rest of the Democratic national establishment, which is why they will not vote for ablack man, no matter who he is, Obama OR Steele.

Like I said, I was born and raised there, and didn't leave until my late 20s. I know how the folks back home think, and what their motiviations are when they pull those levers on election day.

You obviously know SW Virginia better than I do. But can you explain why the Appalachian Counties of Maryland (Garrett, Allegeny & Washington) had no problem voting for a black candidate, Michael Steele, in 2006?

Ethnically, it is not all that different from SW Virginia except for a substantial Amish population. But generally, Amish do not vote, so I don't think that can explain it.

What sickens me is that Steele could have won that election with a shift of about 4% of the African-American electorate who stuck with a while lieberal instead. It wasn't for lack of an attractive alternative in Michael Steele.

Racism may or may not be a factor—seems to me that the folks I’ve met from down in that redneck of the woods are a lot LESS racist than other Virginians I knew growing up. I grew up over near Lynchburg, in an area with some of the last school systems in the state to fully integrate (mine didn’t until 1968, Prince Edward County until 1970 or 1971). Folks back up in the hollers didn’t seem as hung up on race in general...but then again, there’s really not that many black people once you get southwest of the NRV, right? Not compared to other parts of the state.

I will agree with this article that folks in Appalachia, to an extent, are the perfect McCain Democrat. They’re patriotic, feisty, fanatically pro-2A, largely church-going (but certainly not teetotalers!). On the flip-side, they’re still Rats. The Ninth District (all of far southwest Virginia) elects a Democrat back to Congress every year—Rick “Mr. Peepers” Boucher—despite going for George Allen over Jim Webb in the 2006 election. In coal country in particular, they are hardcore pro-union. The UMW is huge there, and those boys do not mess around.

}:-)4

I do remember [the Roger Coleman] case and how the media slammed us all as a bunch of ignorant hillbillies who couldn't give him a fair trial. Needless to say, it gave me great pleasure to see that last minute DNA test finally prove his guilt just before he fried in Virginia's electric chair. My point is that we're not a bunch of ignorant hillibillies in keeping with the stereotypes...