No, people aren't “getting what they voted for” with the flooding in Appalachia

This reinforces a corrosive class politics seeking to divide us along the lines that should be uniting us.

This is a brief follow-up to yesterday’s post, so I am sorry for blowing-up your inbox, fam. I’ve included a pic of Big Dog at the end to make up for it.

I’m rage writing this, so forgive the short-handed nature of it.

But this needs to be said because even on ol’ Substack, I’m seeing the common refrain from supposedly well-meaning people from “blue” states respond to news about flooding in Appalachia with statements such as:

“They voted MAGA”

“They’re TRUMPERS”

“They’re getting what they voted for!”

I do not give one flat flying fuck who you voted for when your life is getting destroyed

In the midst of crisis, as floodwaters have yet to even crest in many places, the last thing we should be doing is pointing fingers at people and spitting in their faces claiming “well if you had voted differently, things would’ve been better.”¹

In Appalachia, when tragedy strikes, we come together as loving neighbors and help each other out. You don’t have a litmus test for providing aid by asking who someone voted for.

In that spirit, here are some helpful resources to donate to if you have the means:

• EKY Mutual Aid is probably the best grassroots rapid response resource in Eastern Kentucky, and they can always use an extra few bucks.

• This spreadsheet provided by Appalachians for Appalachian is an evolving list of ways you can help

The people who will suffer the most have been let down by both parties, so it’s insulting to suggest it is their fault because of how they voted

I have made no secret about my politics. I am very left on the political spectrum. Likewise, I despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for. I think he poses a unique existential threat to the country and is dismantling the administrative state as we speak. With that necessary foundation:

1. I don’t think how a person voted in the past election has any bearing on the catastrophic flooding currently taking place. The resulting flooding would be any different had Kamala Harris been president.

   1. Will the federal response be different? Very likely so, and I would certainly have more faith in the response from a Harris admin than a Trump one. However, we haven’t even got to that point yet and many people have STILL been left behind from Helene — a disaster handled under a Democratic administration.

2. The people in the hollers of Appalachia will absolutely suffer the most from this flooding, and catastrophic flooding isn’t exactly a novel occurrence under republican control

   1. Many people not from here don’t realize that places like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee were Democratic strongholds into the early 2000s. SOLID blue states.

   2. Ask many people there, and I bet they’d tell you that both parties have been a let-down for Appalachia over the course of time.

   3. This also just flat out ignores the fact that not everyone in these places voted for Trump²

Don’t mistake empathy for the “if they go low, we go high” trope. I don’t subscribe to that mantra whatsoever. But I also don’t believe in punishing the most vulnerable people just because it’s an easy dunk on social media and because some people think it’ll “teach those Trumpers a lesson.”

This is a dangerous way of thinking, and it reinforces a corrosive class politics that seeks to divide us along the lines that should be uniting us.

Perhaps I’m more sensitive to this because I have family that live in these areas who are near the harmful flooding happening: family that voted for Trump, and family that did not.

These storms don’t discriminate based on whom you voted for, and our empathy shouldn’t either when it comes to the most vulnerable people in the hollers of Appalachia.

Remember: the oligarchs are not the people whose homes are getting destroyed or whose family members have to sleep in their cars.

Big Dog, resting up since she has President’s Day (and every day) off work

1. This is certainly the implication with what is being said, and that implication often also implies that they should have voted democrat.

2. And again, I reiterate, that at times like this I do not give a fuck if they did.