Why are rural Appalachians so much more racist than other rural whites?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

My cat had four legs. Dogs have four legs. My cat must have been a dog.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The interesting phenomenon is those traditional pockets of Democratic strength in mining counties that were unionized at the cost of many lives that broke with tradition and went Republican this election.

The problem is that the returns in those areas are complicated by the general pattern of low swings to Obama (or even swings against) in other traditional industrial areas (just have another look at the PA and OH swing maps. Yeah, the former is distorted by media market stuff, but the patterns are clear all the same) and, of course, by the awful turnouts there. There are several counties in West Virginia that saw a sizeable swing to McCain but where it seems less people voted for McCain than for Bush four years ago.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The interesting phenomenon is those traditional pockets of Democratic strength in mining counties that were unionized at the cost of many lives that broke with tradition and went Republican this election.

The problem is that the returns in those areas are complicated by the general pattern of low swings to Obama (or even swings against) in other traditional industrial areas (just have another look at the PA and OH swing maps. Yeah, the former is distorted by media market stuff, but the patterns are clear all the same) and, of course, by the awful turnouts there. There are several counties in West Virginia that saw a sizeable swing to McCain but where it seems less people voted for McCain than for Bush four years ago.

Any thoughts on the late breaking revelations on Obama's comments on coal and if that might have kept some reluctant Obama supporters home on election day in this region?

Looking at WV... well... Obama won Boone county pretty comfortably (and the swing against him there was low. Oh here's a funny; Nader did better in Boone county this year than in 2000!). If that was a factor I'd expect a very strong swing there. Meanwhile, one of the strongest swings against him was in Mercer, which mostly (or entirely, can't quite remember) off the coalfield... but is in the same media market as part of SW Virginia.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Note where the swings were lowest!

Edit: you know... in an odd way they sum everything up. Industrial areas and white-flight.