re: #175 No Malarkey!

Same thing with Kentucky. It use to be all democratic except for Eastern Kentucky, which had been pro union in the Civil War, and state government remained mostly in Democratic control until just a few years ago. We lucked into electing Beshear Governor in 2019 by the skin of his teeth, because the GOP Governor was such an ass everyone hated him, and Beshear’s dad had been a popular governor so he had great name recognition.

That’s definitely the decline of the coal mines and the power of the UMWA as a power at work. Same reason why my grandparents’ home county of Cambria in Pennsylvania has sadly gone from a county that soundly rejected Reagan and Reaganism to now embracing Trump and Trumpism. It’s why I don’t buy the economic anxiety bs. They’ve been voting on their cultural resentments and Trump knew how to push that even though he no doubt shits on places like Johnstown and its residents.