I lived in West Virginia for nine years. I loathe and detest Joe Manchin and have done so since the winter of ‘95-‘96 when he ran in the gubernatorial primary. Joe Manchin embodies much of what I hate about West Virginia, and let me tell you, West Virginia triggers me the way Christianity triggers Anymouse.

I’ve lived in five states. West Virginia is the only one in which the claim that “both parties are the same” comes close to being true. The coal and chemical industries control both the Democratic and Republican parties in West Virginia and they are very, very good at leveraging Mountaineers’ perpetual grievances, closed-mindedness, parochialness, paranoia and distrust of outsiders to kill progressive reforms and to maintain their power.

West Virginia is less a state than it is a mineral extraction colony.