General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The median income of a coal miner is about $80K [View all]delisen
(6,042 posts)they develop the same attitudes of the people who used to look down on them.
So there is always work for change agents and organizers-as long as they keep responding to the have-nots.
Many coal miners seem to be successful enough to identify with the bosses.
Democrats chose to not lie to them about coal coming back. We could have done what the Trumps and the tiller sons do-say one thing in private but another in public.
Of course we might have turned off our environmentalist voters.
Personally I think the 100000 to 200000 votes in a handful of states does not warrant some huge about-face in policy.
Sen Byrd had a winning formula for staying in office in W Virginia. He brought jobs in by bringing in federal money and locating federal offices there. They wanted to stay where they were and they wanted some decent jobs-a lot of corporations weren't interested but Senator Byrd was able to wheel and deal in the Senate to get the people of West Virginia jobs which allowed them to stay in W Virginia.