Does Appalachia vote against its interests? Redux.

Get your Neosporin: this take will be hot and may cause blisters. The haters will need a cough drop because they're gonna be barkin'

I wrote this in a bit of a fit of rage, so apologies if I jump around a bit.

I promised you I’d revisit this subject

I was waiting for the right time to revisit “does Appalachia vote against its own interests.” And I’ll be honest, I deleted my first post because I don’t think it’s an accurate reflection of how I really feel anymore.

I’ve been stewing on it, friends. Brooding over it in deep contemplation. But the time has finally come where the spirit hath moved me.

This is the embodiment of how some liberals feel about “red states” during natural disasters….ONLY some of them, not all

What is that spirit, you might ask? Regrettably, it’s not some divine omnipotent being — something much more pathetic. It was the Instagram comment section of a recent More Perfect Union video.¹

More Perfect Union goes to the coalfields

More Perfect Union enlisted friend of the show and this Substack, John Russell, to go down to southern West Virginia and report on what has been happening since the catastrophic flooding that occurred about a month ago. Virtually no mainstream legacy media outlet has covered this, and the More Perfect Union team deserve a tremendous amount of credit for dedicating resources to doing this.² ³

They posted a reel of a clip from the above video on Instagram and, as expected, it received the typical response from people lecturing in the comments about how “they” voted.

Now, I try not to read comments. Ever. But even I can’t help myself sometimes.

And these always get to me. They’re hypocritical, they’re inaccurate, and they’re also just horrific. The utter joy these people have for the suffering and devastation of people is sick.

While I’m not here to make excuses for how West Virginians voted⁴, let’s actually try to answer the original question.

Get to the point Chuck

The last time I talked about this, I tried way too hard to approach this analytically. I tried to analyze voting patterns in Appalachia to create some sort of data methodology for how I could create a rubric and design a “data-backed” way of truly deciding once and for all if Appalachia voted against its interests.

This was admittedly flawed and, If I’m being honest, stupid. So much so that I have since deleted that post, because I actually have a fundamentally different way of looking at this question.

Without getting into things too much, I think the TLDR of it is it’s a question with a flawed premise designed to be divisive.

While I think there are absolutely differences between Democrats and Republicans,⁵ and have always felt that way, I think it’s safe to say that both parties have let down places like Southern West Virginia.

The way John framed his comment below is what actually inspired me to revisit this subject, because I agree with him and think this is the best way to look at it.

If I look back at how I voted, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been able to vote for a candidate whose values and viewpoints were fully aligned in my own actual interests.

Voting is often times a binary choice based on whom you align with the most, or who you think will do the least amount of harm. For a lot of people, sadly, that is nobody.⁶ So many politicians, especially at the corporate level, are bought out by corporate lobbyists.

I 100% agree with people who believe that a President Kamala Harris would have probably approved a disaster declaration quicker than Trump did. But there wasn’t anyone on the 2024 national ballot that people in Mingo or McDowell County (or anywhere in southern West Virginia) could have voted for who had their BEST interests. ⁷

How Appalachia voted in presidential elections: 1992 vs 2024

So, does Appalachia vote against its own interests?

Lots of people like to pretend that the magic solution to all the problems in these places is voting blue. Friends, I have to tell you something — large swaths of Appalachia were blue for a long time.

While there were many factors at play, and I’m not excusing bigotry and racism etc. as not being part of that equation — they were for sure. The Democrats also deserve some culpability for losing a massive foothold in this region and ESPECIALLY in West Virginia.

AND ESPECIALLY IN SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA! ONE OF THE MOST RELIABLY DEMOCRATIC PLACES IN THE DAMN STATE

During presidential elections, when the rest of the state was moving red, Southern West Virginia held out for a very, very long time. Hell, McDowell County still went blue for Barack Obama in 2008!

But to answer the question

[Sat. March 15th, 5:10pm ET] Im adding in an edit to clarify here, because I re-read this and didn’t like the way it came off.

You can certainly vote in ways that don’t benefit you, sure.⁸ But how are you supposed to vote in your best interests when there isn’t anyone that represents those interests? Our votes that we cast that are the best of the two options often end up going against our interests often times.

That’s why I think it’s a bullshit premise to begin with, and one that is counter-productive to really engage with beyond what I’ve talked about here.

I also very much agree with what John said in the comment I screengrabbed above.

Here is an example of what I mean when I say its difficult to contemplate a situation where I’ve been able to vote for anyone that truly represents my best interests:

• I’m not rich. I have a lot of debt from student loans, etc. I work my ass off at my day job just to get by and pay my bills, and so does my wife. We do this to survive and so that hopefully one day we can set ourselves and our family up for a decent life — even though that is becoming increasingly harder to even envision in this country.

  • I have yet to have the opportunity to vote for ANYONE who has had any of those life experiences and still does, and therefore who could credibly represent those interests in any capacity whatsoever as an elected official

Appalachia — like the vast majority of the country during presidential elections (and most elections) — aren’t often (rarely ever on a national ballot) given the opportunity to truly vote for people who actually represent their best interests.⁹

The statement: “[place/state] votes against its own interests” presents a false choice.

Yes, I believe a President Kamala Harris, and generally democrats down the ballot, would have been better for West Virginia and Appalachia and don’t want to pretend otherwise. However, would I really expect the living conditions in Mingo or McDowell County to materially change or get better if the election results were different? I don’t think the Democratic Party has done enough in the decades that these counties LOYALLY gave them their votes to say a definitive yes to that.

AGAIN, I’m not under any witch’s spell to think that the Republicans will be any better. Far from it. Monumentally worse, in fact!

And I also want to be clear, yet again. I am not making excuses for how people vote. I wish more people would have rejected Donald Trump and voted for Harris instead.¹⁰ People have every right to feel pissed the fuck off at every single person who voted for Donald Trump.

However…

If you are celebrating when people who are struggling are losing their homes and their livelihoods because of a natural disaster — one that would have happened regardless of who the hell was the president or whenever the fuck a disaster declaration had been declared — then you are also part of the problem.

You have no moral high ground to any of the people you think you do. You aren’t just rejecting the failed “when they go low, we go high” mantra. You aren’t “fighting fire with fire.” Your enemies are not the people whose houses are getting flooded — they’re the ones who are profiting off of it.

Solidarity doesn’t pick sides. We don’t get to means-test empathy during times of disaster, especially in places where so many people have so little.

Log the fuck off the internet if you are experiencing feelings like this, because it’s clear you need to touch some goddam grass.

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We need to be building power, not sowing division

Statements like “Appalachia votes against its own interests” doesn’t really do anything except create division. It doesn’t reach some profound political theoretical conclusion about anything. All it really does is piss people off and get a bunch of resist libs to reply to you on the internet with some variation of “THIS ^”.

I understand if people disagree. I genuinely do. I know this seems like I’m making excuses for places like West Virginia, but I’m really not.

I think when people sit around judging places, especially without knowing anything about them, it does way more harm than good.

People like John, and Zach Shrewsbury (featured in the video), are in these places learning about the people there and helping tell their stories. I encourage y’all to listen to THEM and trust THEM. They’ve been there and are doing the work!

Zach’s organization Blue Jay Rising, is doing important work focused on mutual aid and voter outreach efforts in West Virginia. Check them out.

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(I created a Spotify playlist for this Substack where I’ll add weekly listen music each week. Follow it if you use Spotify)

This week, I’m listening to Margo Price — an outlaw country musician who I love for her raw, unfiltered truth in her music and lyrics. She embodies what I think country music is and should be about.

I’m deviating a bit because Margo isn’t technically Appalachian, I think she embodies a lot of what I love about my favorite Appalachian musicians, so I’m including her in my weekly listen (plus I just fucking love her music and am a huge fan of her in general).

She is the embodiment of outlaw country, and her lyrics have touched on topics other country artists are too scared to touch with a ten-foot pole — like the gender pay gap, calling out the country music industry’s bullshit, and criticizing Ronald Reagan’s arms sales to Iran. Oddly specific, I know. But can you, for even a second, fucking imagine Luke Bryan or Jason Aldean bringing up Iran Contra in one of their songs?¹¹

She has been an outspoken advocate for issues that we should all care about, including the people who feed us. Above all of that, she has shown so much love for her Nashville community, a place I called home for the better part of five years and still miss tremendously.

Anyway, we love Margo Price on this Substack. If you’re new to her, start with any of her music, as it’s all good. Her newest album Strays is definitely worth a listen, and you should absolutely stream her latest single “Too Stoned To Cry” that she recorded with the venerable Billy Strings.

Lastly, she too is on Substack!

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Hi, if you made it this far, may I borrow a few more seconds? Chances are you are hate reading this to get to the end so you can leave a nasty comment. But! By the off chance you actually enjoy reading my snarky, profanity-laden commentary, perhaps you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber? It is never expected but always appreciated. It helps me continue providing a perspective that, I think, is rare but important for Appalachia. It also helps me reach a wider audience.

Thank you! -Chuck

1. Bear with me here, people.

2. I can’t say enough about how valuable More Perfect Union’s work has been to bring stories like this to wider audiences. They have been telling worker-centered stories without a partisan political bend to them, but often with a populist angle showing how corporations and corruption has hurt the working class — regardless of how they voted. They do very important work.

3. I also think that MPU can be an effective platform for helping people realize how corrupt and useless Donald Trump actually is. He didn’t show up for them, and they know it. But resistance libs beating people over the heads saying “told you so, dumbass” isn’t an effective way of reaching people, turns out!

4. Because remember, not all West Virginians voted for Trump. We should apply nuance to how we think about a state and not paint with a broad generalized brush like these assholes do!

5. I want to reiterate this and be crystal fucking clear, actually. Democrats in a lot of ways are leaps and bounds better than Republicans. However, the national Democratic Party is an entity that has been co-opted and corrupted by big corporate interests, as has many of the national politicians. That is the single biggest problem with the party itself.

6. While I strongly encourage people to vote, even if they write in a candidate or skip races, I don’t blame people for feeling so left out and downtrodden by our political system that they simply do not want to even participate anymore.

7. People also place way too much emphasis on voting as being the end-all-be-all of activism and change making. It’s not. As the great Appalachian comedian Billy Wayne Davis says quite frequently, strikes work a lot better than voting.

8. And in ways that harm other people

9. I am mostly referring to presidential elections in this post, simply because if I tried to get into the subject of state elections it would take entirely too long to try to hash out here. However, that will be the subject of a future post…perhaps!

10. For posterity’s sake though, Biden should have never run for a second term and the Democrats should have had a real primary. Harris was never set up for success to begin with, the campaign was not well-run, their policies on Gaza were atrocious, and the party itself has no real identity now and the country is suffering because of it.

11. No, the answer you’re looking for is absolutely the fuck not.