How did Al Gore lose West Virginia

[bagelman]

Sigh--- yet another thread about WV, which has been an Atlas obsession since at least the '08 Dem Primaries.

Let's start once again with the symbolic influence of Coal Miners that helped provide the raw materials the fueled the Industrial Revolution in the US, that provided power to the Steel Mills and Auto Factories, as well as residential consumers that used to take buckets of Coal to provide fuel in their brownstone flats in working-class neighborhoods of NYC and elsewhere in the US.

Fast forward a bit in time, and although the Coal Miners chose not to cause Industrial Unrest during WW II, in exchange for "future rewards", they were left with Taft-Hartley after Truman became President when Roosevelt died in office at the end of the War.

The strikes of '48 under a Democratic President from Coal Miners that had been promised their dues were met with National Guard and Militia Members to suppress what was widely viewed as a deal with the former Administration.

Ok--- the '50s and '60s hit and Coal Miners are able to finally win decent wages under collective bargaining agreements.

We start to roll into the '70s, and once again a Democratic Administration tries to put the screws to the United Mine Workers (This time in the form of the Carter Administration) at the peak of the energy crisis.

Hit the Fast forward button, and now we are in 1989 at the time of the legendary Pittston Strike, which started in Western Virginia, but spread shut down all of the Union Coal Mines in the Eastern United States.

The issue was "double breasting", the practice that Coal Mining Companies were using to shut down Union Mines, and open up Non-Union Mines elsewhere within the region.

The UMWA won a brief victory, but the bosses are up to their old tricks, and come 1993, after the Bush Recession, they directly assault on the UMWA (Full disclosure I was doing solidarity work as a young man in Ohio at that time).

So--- the mining companies crushed the United Mine Workers at that time.

Who was the President of the United States?

Where was Bill Clinton in 1994???

So the Miners have been abandoned under the "New Democratic" Party, which actually was even worse (Believe it or not) of the "Old Democratic Party....

We can hit the Fast Forward button to 2000 and 2008, but Al Gore's massive defeat has much more to do with Bill Clinton's policies during the strike of '93 and the aftermath than it has to do with God, Gays, and Guns, like a few other have posted as an explanation for WV Pres Election results.

Why did Clinton win West Virginia so convincingly in 1996, though?

Lack of competition and his big nationwide win