And historically those miners had jobs. However the loss of their jobs had nothing to do with sanctuary cities, abortion, second amendment rights or any other wedge issue but their party switch did.
edit @CalChris Because your reading comprehension is not the best. They voted for their own economic interests by voting Democratic. You do realize in 2008 both of WVs Senators were Dems and so was their governor. Since the Depression the vast majority of West Virginia's Senate seats have been filled by Dems
https://data.bls.gov/generated_files/graphics/latest_numbers...
Looks more like Cheeto took them for a ride. He does that. Is WV voting its interest in the opioid crisis? I don't think more guns, gays and god will get them out of it.
When people are despised and neglected, they tend to notice.
Whack-a-mole with specific drugs isn't a solution, it is something that will never make any progress but can generate the perpetual illusion of action.
You want to deal with cocaine/crack/meth/opioids and whatever tomorrow's iteration is, you deal with the health (including mental health and substance use disorder) prevention and treatment system, including cost and access issues, broadly. And the Dems are the only ones that aren't actively fighting to make that worse, rather than better, across the board. Everything else is the equivalent of shipping homeless from one town to the next to “fix” homelessness.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic#/media/File%...
Not sure why the governing party isn’t being held responsible for, you know, governing.
The transgender kids and sexual assault of college women coverage was on Fox. Again, guns, gays and god ain’t gonna get us out of this. But it will deliver the votes in places like WV.
People innth field were talking about it before that, but meth was still getting more attention; that's pretty much true of each of the unbroken sequence of specific-drug abuse crises, too.
In fact, it was worse during the "Obama years" than before or after. "Steadily fell during the Obama years" is a flat lie.
And they'll find themselves with no long-term improvement in employment, and a dramatically weaker safety net as a bonus.