Applewood wrote:
"I don't get why coal miners vote for Wolf and the Democrats. Because their union tells them to? The ordinary miner, or any blue collar worker for that matter,- should be able to see that the Democrats have done nothing for them. And in the case of coal miners, Democrats actually are taking away their jobs."It goes way
WAY back.
There were "two sides" back in them days:
- The owners
- The workers
And the owners all-too-often treated the workers (particularly miners) as little better than serfs.
The "union" -- whether its roots be from leftists/communists or not (and they usually
were) -- was the only leverage that existed between the miners and the owners.
Take 100 seconds and listen to this famous song written by Florence Reece in the 1930's:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1You go to Harlan County
There is no neutral there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair
Which side are you on, boys...
Which side are you on?Times are changing, but the battles fought years ago were so bitter that the residue endures to today.
For many of those folks, it's just "hard to let it go"...