I think the time frame you’re looking at there is a bit key to why things may have changed.
Prior to the 60’s the Southern, conservative, racist leg of the Democratic party hadn’t split off and been swallowed by the GOP. And 1996 was about when the post 70’s national rightward swing had peaked and Democrats started to gain some electoral success as a result of their growing center right faction.
At the same time you have both the erosion of Unions and the erosion of support for Democrats among certain kinds of union members, farmers and so forth.
The second half of that might be what puts the lie to “can’t”. I find it hard to believe that a candidate along the lines PA’s John Fetterman couldn’t make waves there. Given a lot of that guy’s base is in parts of PA that look an awful lot like West Virginia and among the same sort of coal and natural gas workers and white union laborers that are supposedly the stumbling block in WV.
It’s a little ridiculous to say there’s no way to make in roads in that environment, when some one is.
Which is entirely fair, but only for recent years. Shit changes because people make it change. We can either make it change or give up and let the fascists win. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to do that yet.
Give people an alternative, something to strive for, and many of them will come around. You can’t just go in and talk about future jobs, you have to help them make a path forward. As you say, WV has had the same economic backbone for more than a century. They need o be part of building something different and that takes active leadership and listening. This is where someone like Clinton fails, as she’s just not a hands on, in the dirt kind of politician. Biden is closer, but…
The openly mocking of Appalachia does not help, frankly. It sure makes the northern city folks feel superior, but it doesn’t do jack or shit to solve their problems. It only pushes them into the waiting arms of fascists like Trump. We need a broadly inclusive vision… one that includes all marginalized people.
Speaker is a house thing, The preesiding officer is either the Vice President, or the President-pro-tempore. But yes, a 51-49 republican majority would give mcconnell much more power.
Only if Manchin became a Republican again. Which is a possibility, although he might be able to preserve some of his kingmaker power with the Dems if he sat as an independent and caucused with them. Right now, as a member of the party, he’s just holding it hostage on critical issues like the new voting rights act.
Without him Mitch McConnel is Senate President again and we’re back to the late Obama years where nothing can be done and Mitch controls everything that comes through the Senate.
Right now, with voting rights in peril, it’s close enough for Yertle.
It’s easier to hold the party hostage from within than without. Kicking him out would reduce his power enough that he’d be less able to deliver to his constituents, and allow the Dems to run a better candidate for his seat if they’re so inclined (which the milksop Dem establishment isn’t, of course – DINOs like him and Lieberman give them cover for Third-Way business as usual).
With a better party leadership, the goal would be to reduce his influence one way or another. The ideal way would be to capture a few more Senate seats so they could tell him to pound sand, but even if they did I’ll bet they’d still let him hold up any vaguely progressive agenda.
I feel like the logic of our zeitgeist is that if a politician murdered their opponent the pundits would say, “Well, it was morally wrong, it it appears to have been politically savvy.”
Bullshit. When it comes to policies West Virginians are practically socialists. They support universal single-payer healthcare, high minimum wage, UBI, progressive taxation, etc. They just can’t get past the shirts-vs-skins (R) or (D) labels.
