The Race Factor in West Virginia

Don't believe WV more racists than other states-just more honest about it! (4.00 / 1)

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by: sl26 @ Fri Dec 02, 2011 at 02:50:56 AM UTC

The point of the study (0.00 / 0)

was that it measured based on what people did in private, when no-one was looking (except of course Google, which sees all), not on what they said publicly or even privately in response to an interview.  

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by: JAWVMM @ Sat Dec 03, 2011 at 14:16:08 PM UTC

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Dana Houle, DHinMI, and Carnacki have had this argumnet too many times.at dailykos (0.00 / 0)

Obama whites nationally 42%, West Virginia 41%.

One youtube of a dick on an ATV goes viral. That is a research paper you wnat to use to bash your own state?

How did this guy compensate ithe Google survey for the GOogle bomb effect? Just ask Rick Santourum if you think it is not real.


NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Dec 08, 2011 at 15:18:51 PM UTC

"bash your own state" is a bit strong (0.00 / 0)

Reporting that a study which found that Obama lost a small percentage of votes because he was black, and that this effect was strongest in West Virginia is hardly bashing.  

It's a small effect, but one we might want to think about countering. The President might take a leaf from Kennedy next time around and visit the state.

The Google bomb effect is on page rankings, and has nothing to do with the number of times people use particular search words, so I don't see how it is relevant.

I was disturbed that we had "bashed" the rest of West Virginia by comparing it unfavorably to WV-01 - in a national forum.

"the population has mixed with outsiders much more than in the mountains."

"We don't have the grinding poverty of the coal mining regions in the south part of the state"

"There is a liberal axis of college towns in the Monongahela River valley: Morgantown, Fairmont, and Clarksburg. These areas vote Democratic. There is a rust belt along the Ohio River that is more conservative, but strongly union"

And possibly Obama.

"Obama was eloquent, young, urban, and Harvard; while Hillary was practical, older, small town, and Arkansas. West Virginians like blue collar, populist candidates."

Like a Yale degree is more populist than Harvard, and, you know, we voted way less for Kerry because he's upscale.

Take a look at the maps at http://patchworknation.org/

for a picture of where Democrats (and support for Obama)are strongest in West Virginia, where poverty has decreased in the last decade and where it has increased.  And, hello! - I don't expect any West Virginian ever to imply that those "mountain people" are isolated up a holler and haven't mixed with outsiders.  Please. The same immigrant groups populated the coal and lumber camps of the mountains as the factory towns of the rivers.

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by: JAWVMM @ Thu Dec 08, 2011 at 19:19:29 PM UTC

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