Comments by "wvu05" (@wvu05) on "We Have Right-Wing Democrats. Why Not Left-Wing Republicans?" video.

  1. Because most Republicans are more anti-left than having an actual ideology.
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  2.  @anonymouszebra1239  You are so right. I think that another thing that hurts us is that too many people have given up on labor and class issues after the ascendancy of Bill Clinton. People tend to forget this, but from 1932-96, no state voted Democratic in Presidential elections more often than WV (14-3 [1956, 1972, 1984 being the exceptions]: Massachusetts and Minnesota tied for second with 13-4). If people want to blame racism, note that this is both before and after the Southern shift in the 1960s and '70s. However, I think that some talk of white privilege is alienating, because if you tell a poor person in Appalachia that he/she is inherently advantaged, that person will say, "If this is privilege, what is hardship?" I am not saying who has it harder, but when you talk privilege to people who are suffering, that only leads to resentment. And, because of the focus on cultural issues, some want to give up on rural voters altogether. I was at an election night party at the union hall in November, and someone asked me why I thought we started losing in places like WV, and how to get them back. I laid out my theory of full-throttled left-wing (or real) populism, and someone was offended, insisting that these were racists who were irredeemable. Well, white conservatives talk down to black liberals and wonder why they won't vote Republican, so why would rural white people. That's also why I never, ever give thumbs up to anyone who talks about inbreeding when badmouthing Trump voters. When we figure out who the real enemy is, and we help rural America understand who we are fighting, they will come running back.
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  3. He seems like someone who is a Republican because where he lives the primary is the only game in town. When I grew up in WV, and it was still the bluest state in America (WV voted for 14 of 17 Democratic Party Presidential nominees from 1932-96, and Minnesota and Massachusetts was tied for second with 13), I hardly ever saw a Republican run for anything below the statewide level. In Philadelphia where I live now, in the most liberal part of town, it is the same way. When one party dominates, there are a lot of people who join it just because they want to have a say in local elections. (Someone in my office who lives in Delaware County is a registered Republican for the same reason.) This guy is a Democrat in all but name.
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