Us Appalachians used to be good Union boys. Slaver power was weak here, and we wanted no part of it. We also used to be strongly left-wing (by US standards at least) and pro-labor.
Fucking right-wing radio and the politicization of churches.
What you say is true but Dems also passed NAFTA and never raised the federal minimum wage when they had the power under Obama. NAFTA killed so many good jobs it’s inarguably the end point of the US middle class and doing something federally a out min wage would have helped poor, white voters enormously which the Dems have lost many of in key areas like the rust belt and as you say E TN. Destitute people become easy targets for right wingers selling anger and hate, and the Dems sold the poor down the river with those two things. Obviously Dems are overall better for the poor but those are economic and political nukes.
ACA was powerful but insurance is deliberately so convoluted even HR barely understands it so it wasn’t as easy to put up in the trophy case to brag about and voters to remember.
I don’t know that I agree. Most of the jobs lost in the Rust Belt and Appalachia are from increasing technology as much as globalization, and in any case were generally not jobs low-paying enough to be significantly affected by minimum wage laws. You can argue for NAFTA as a contributing factor, but the same international trade which created the American middle class also cratered it - and that international trade is overwhelmingly with partners other than Canada and Mexico.
I’m horrified to think TN legislators actually reflect the wishes of their constituents.
Um, how did TN pass a national holiday?..
