The Election

My initial dismay at the national and West Virginia election results has become more rational. Nationally, the Republicans wiped the floor with the Democrats. Here in West Virginia, we will have a majority-Republican House of Delegates for the first time in many, many years., and although the state Senate election resulted in a tie, a Democrat was convinced to change his party affiliation to Republican to give the Republicans a majority. I wonder if he was paid to do that, and if so, how much?

I don't know if the Democrats could have gotten around the hatred that has been fomented against President Obama by Karl Rove, Roger Ailes, the Koch Brothers, and locally, coal mine operators like Bob Murray of Murray Energy, who owns mines here in West Virginia. When we arrived here in 2012, the state was awash in "Stop Obama's War On Coal" signs and bumper stickers and even license plates that say "Friend of Coal."

Our junior Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin, came up with a simple law, along with a Republican from Pennsylvania, to close a loophole that allowed anyone to buy a gun at a show without any kind of check. He was subjected to a blowback of hate from the gun lobby. I think he must have been shocked at the ferocity.

With all this as background, it's no wonder that Natalie Tennant, from all reports a good person, the Democratic Senate nominee to replace retiring Jay Rockefeller, ran against Obama and the EPA. In a debate on public radio with Republican nominee Shelly Moore Capito, Tennant stated over and over that she was raised on a farm and owns a gun. For her part, Capito only stated, over and over, that Tennant supported Obama.

In West Virginia, with its palpable dislike of outsiders and racial minorities, it's hard not to think Obama's race had something to do with this. Capito had been in Congress, and no one could point to anything she accomplished in the last few terms. She presented no agenda except stopping Obama and the EPA.

It didn't help that the Supreme Court wouldn't hear the case for maintaining the ban on same-gender marriage in West Virginia. President Obama, at least in his second term, has been a supporter of gay rights, and I'm sure that rankled people here and in other states. West Virginia passed a law against same-gender marriage a few years ago, with only three dissenters: two here in Morgantown and one in Huntington. One of the two in Morgantown, the first African-American mayor, was defeated in this election. In our district, we have gone from three Democrats and two Republicans in the legislature to four Republicans and one Democrat. Voters here could press one button to vote "all Democratic" or "all Republican." People should have had to vote for each office. Republican campaign materials tended not to state which party the candidate belonged to.

I voted for Tennant, maybe because singer-songwriter Carole King came here to support her.  I'm not sure that King, a well-known liberal, a Jew and a New Yorker by birth, was helpful to the campaign. She got me to vote for Tennant, but I'm not a typical West Virginian. I was sorely tempted to vote for The Mountain Party, whose views are closest to mine. Their problem is that they have no chance of winning.

I read Kathleen Parker in our local paper, The Dominion-Post, this morning (November 13). She blames Democrats for alleged lies about The Affordable Care Act. She is upset that people lost their insurance despite promises that they could keep their insurance. That was always conditional on those policies meeting certain standards, which many of them didn't. I don't believe it was the big issue she states it is. I think she knows that and is just looking for something to throw at President Obama. She's delusional if she thinks, as she says, that the Republican victory was about "restoring that trust" in government.

I think the Republicans won by limiting voting among African-Americans, who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, by nefarious reapportionment schemes, difficult ID laws, and not accepting new registrations, even though they were filed timely. I credit the Supreme Court with allowing "dark money" to pollute elections, and overturning The Voting Rights Act, allowing mostly formerly-Confederate states to impose new restrictions on voting that would adversely affect African-Americans.

There is no denying that Democrats could have done a much better job of presenting themselves. They could have stood up for the ACA and promoted clean air and water, even in West Virginia. In our district, Democrat Glen Gainer ran almost no campaign against Tea Party favorite David McKinley, a climate change denier.

If the Republicans are proud of their victory, I'm fine with it. They got it from Democratic timidity, racism, homophobia, cheating on the rules, and money from only the top 1% of our economy. Maybe a majority of voters are fine with that. I'm not.