Trump Wins Where There is Unemployment

For John, BLUF:  I thought President Obama had fixed the Economy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Yes, author and former Virginia Senator Jim Webb is a bit of a gadfly, but still, he represents the more conservative side of the Democratic Party.

From The Washington Post of 3 March 2016 we have this headline, "Jim Webb:  I could vote for Trump, but not Hillary".

Now, this is three month old news, but here is an important paragraph:

In Virginia, the mogul won by 2.8 percent of the vote, but dominated the counties of Appalachia, peaking at 69.7 percent in Buchanan County.  That was the sort of place that Webb had seen break from the Democrats during the Obama years.  In 2006, during his successful Senate bid, Webb won the county by 12 points.  Six years later, when now-Sen.  Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) ran to replace Webb, he lost Buchanan by 28.6 points — and President Obama lost it by 34.7 points.

We are talking about voters who are union workers, some who are retired and worried about losing their pensions and health benefits.  These are desperate people and Ms Hillary Clinton doesn't seem to have empathy for them.  I am reminded of a line I heard on NPR about a decade ago, when some person being interviewed by the Communist Revolution in China and the millions who died, and the interviewee responded, "If you are going to make an omelet you are going to have to break a few eggs." You can, as my Middle Brother does, put this down to "white resentment", but if you look at these people after a day in the mines it just looks like resentment, without any racial coloring.  And this is a long term problem.  Look at the movie How Green Was My Valley, from 1941.  And people wonder why there are groups like the Plaid Cymru.  And the Trump campaign.  And the Bernie Campaign

Regards  —  Cliff