The Why of Appalachia & racism & sexism
With the maps and the historical context, Josh Marshall explains the puzzle that the major media outlets fail to define. (And high praise to him for doing so).
Though I’ve joked plenty in my contempt for racism, such stereotyping doesn’t advance a thing. I admit that both my understanding of US history and my travels through most of the country (including Appalachia in AL, TN, WV and KY) made me frustrated with teh stupid long before this political campaign.
But there’s no explaining away teh stupid of the MSM for failing to provide the important lesson Marshall has. Their ignorance of US history is profound, thorough and inexcusable.
It’s also notable that the major areas of Clinton strength outside of the Appalachian region can be found in Arkansas (a home state thing) and Texas, plus upper Michigan. Remember that Obama wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan, so that result can’t be drawn to any conclusion. So Appalachia and the spillover to areas near is the ‘problem’, not just ‘working class white voters’ nationally. And from an electability standpoint, the only states where that can really be said to be a concern from an electoral history standpoint is in PA and OH.
I also believe the MSM can be faulted for its longstanding attack dog approach to the Clintons, which has a history of its own. As well, it ignores an enormous amount of sexism…. did I say ‘ignore’? I meant its promotion of sexism.
However, while that’s a big issue, too, as 10% -15% of the electorate nationwide is not ready to vote for a woman to the presidency - giving a white male a head start from the outset - that bias has very little regional basis to it, so its impact on the electoral vote outcome is far less pronounced. Possibly Utah, because of its heavy Mormon influence, is the only state where sexism makes it hard for a woman to prevail, but since it’s one of the most solidly Republican states, that really doesn’t limit Clinton anywhere vital.
So all of the promotion of the meme that Obama is unelectable really comes down to two states. And in current national polling, he already leads McCain by several points in PA, so that electability argument comes down to Ohio, mostly, not some national weakness, as the MSM and Team Clinton advances.
It’s understandable that Team Clinton advances it; after all, their purpose is to win. But what is the purpose of the media? It should be ‘to inform’, and so far, it’s doing an amateurish, ignorant job.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Marshall’s piece was just a stunning piece of analysis. Not just for what he points out (something I’ve instinctively understood since living in Southern Ohio, the Appalachian foothills for five years) but how he makes the point. The overlap of the county-by-county tracking of Hillary support superimposed over the Appalachian Trail speaks volumes.
In one short blog post, Marshall sums up the dynamics of this entire primary season.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
[…] If you go check the latest state polls at pollster.com, or fivethirtyeight.com or even electoral-vote.com, you’ll see that the Appalachia states that matter (PA, OH) are already showing Obama with a nice lead over McCain in PA and he’s only 2% behind in OH. […]