Kentucky 2003

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I can explain what happened in Kentucky in 1999.

Peppy Martin was shunned by the Republican establishment because she was a loose cannon - in addition to being not conservative enough to appease Republican leaders. The party didn't want to spend money on her campaign, since they knew she was going to lose anyway.

The reason she carried several heavily Democratic counties is that coal miners there were angry about Paul Patton's "reform" of the workers comp system.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I don't know what the deal with West Virginia was. I was told that the United Mine Workers endorsed Buchanan for President, but I have no idea what led them to do that. Nader would have been a much better choice. (He was popular among industrial workers elsewhere.)

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The 2000 "election" was a paradox.

The most economically depressed areas trended Republican, while economically prosperous areas trended Democratic.

It made no sense whatsoever.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I think the states such as Virginia that are full of new suburbs are going to be the only ones trending Republican in 2004. Nouveau riche suburbanites are a natural New Right constituency, and the Democrats would just be alienating everyone else by trying to please them. (Clinton's support for school uniforms was a good example of this.)

Let's face it: Poor rural and central city voters such as myself really are quite different from the new brand of conservatives who you hear on Fox News Channel and talk radio. We're part of a whole different America from the one the New Right resides in.