Why the poorest county in West Virginia had faith in Donald Trump.

[elleng]

Donald Trump was more popular in McDowell County than anywhere else in America during the Republican 2016 primaries.

[elleng]

6. Watch the video, and you'll see there are OTHER people interviewed.

[kimbutgar]

7. I did and I'm deleting my comment

Poor misinformed people who fell for the lies.

[elleng]

8. Thanks

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. It's important to note this is a 2016 video.

I would love to see how they feel today.

[elleng]

4. Right, which is why I posted the date, and said they HAD faith, not HAVE.

Thanks for noticing.

[guillaumeb]

3. West Virginia is the second-poorest state in the United States of America.

And McDowell County is the poorest County in the 2nd poorest state in the union.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_West_Virginia_locations_by_per_capita_income


But Trump did say that he loves the poorly educated voters.

[elleng]

5. Right, and Rove said the same thing, some years ago.

Repugs have done a good job trashing public education.

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. Automation and natural gas killed the coal mining jobs

I don't think that can be emphasized enough. When people bring up regulations, that's really a minor concern. You could eliminate every regulation on coal mining and it still wouldn't bring back the industry. Old, coal fired power plants are being replaced with new gas fired power plants. That isn't going to change.

[elleng]

10. Right, and no one prepared those dependent on coal jobs for such,

NO one, not repugs, not dems, NO one.

We don't plan.

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. But as this little doc pointed out, the bulk of the jobs disappeared in the 60s and 70s

Anyone who expects those jobs to come back FORTY YEARS LATER cannot be educated to believe otherwise.

[BigmanPigman]

16. That's exactly what I thought when I heard it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. And as much as I like Obama

when he would talk about "clean coal" I just wanted to scream. There is no such thing! It's dirty to mine it and it's dirty to use for fuel. The faster we get away from it, the better. For the time being, metalurgical coal needs to be mined to make steel, but for generating electricity, coal's time is over. RIP

[keithbvadu2]

12. No worries! Everyone has good jobs now.... Right? Unemployment low.

No worries! Everyone has good jobs now.... Right? Unemployment low.

These people have no legitimate complaints now.... Right?

The Trump economy is going great! ... Right?

[elleng]

14. BOURDAIN in West Virginia now, CNN.

[elleng]

13. *BOURDAIN in WEST VIRGINIA on CNN now.

[Doitnow]

15. Lied to, more than likely.

[zentrum]

17. If this was a Black family

….from a Black economically depressed area, these Trump supporters would be saying, "They're just Lazy! They just want to sit around all day!"

These people are still living in White privilege, including their analysis, and don't even know it.

Bet if they invited a bunch of immigrants into the town and beefed up population, entrepreneurship, etc. they'd turn their economy around. But oh dear—it wouldn't be a White Southern culture. Oh dear, oh dear.

[elleng]

19. Watch the video, and if you can,

watch Bourdain's segment on West Virginia.