Thread:CrimsonFire735/@comment-25890179-20170514212937/@comment-4960835-20171023144737

This is the coal region, correct?

Appalachia used to be deeply pro-democrat, however these people now feel abandoned by that party. This started under Al Gore, when the Republicans convinced the miners there that a war on coal was being waged. At the same time, the Democrats moved away from their former backbone, the Unions (especially strong in Appalachia), into the arms of Wall Street. This only furthered the felling of abandonment; thus the region went Republican. The now-corporate Democrats responded by pushing Rebublican-lite Democrats in the region, who often ended up losing against their Republican counterparts and often sweepingly so.

This feeling of neglect is why Appalachia came out so strongly for Trump - as did the Rust Belt. And like the Rust Belt, they came out strongly for Sanders in the Democratic primary. (This is where the whole "Sanders supporters are white males"-bogus comes from (he actually does better amongst women and people of color than amongst white men and his true base are the millenials).)

The takeaway from this is that those people don't care that Sanders is a Social Democrat - They care that he's anti-establishment. Thay's the one thing Sanders and Trump have in common, and the one thing these people went for. The establishment has abanoned them.

So, I'd say: show them. Show them that Trump has not drained the swamp, but that he is bathing in it. Let them know that Trump is just going to gut their Medicais, that he'd be content to just let them rot. Then push medicare for all. I'd assume these people want it. When someone says that would raise their taxes, admit it, but also admit that it would, all taken together, save them (a lot) of money that they won't have to sped on the insurance industry (these are proivate taxes, as it were). Again, honesty, speaking your mind and being truly passionate about what you believe seems to be a big deal there. Tell/show them the truth about Trump's tax plan. He lies, they think he's talling the truth because of the blunt way he speaks. When he says his plan won't benefit him, but working-class people, they'll believe him. It lowers his drastically and actually raises their taxes. Do they want that? No, of course not (be rethorical here - it helps).

The "Bernie in Trump County" town hall is probably a good start on how to win them over.