A new meme is evolving that Obama just might have a chance with some Appalachia voters. While he may not "win" Appalachia, any erosion of Republican support in these areas is progress and several signs point to Appalachia getting on board for Obama/Biden in '08.
Today in the Cincinnati Enquirer, there is an article about Obama's ground game in the Appalachian counties of Ohio.
There are some issues, besides racism, that the people of Appalachia are concerned about:
Here, they watch the same presidential campaign ads on TV that city folks watch, piped into the deep hollows and atop tree-covered hills on cable and satellite dishes; and wonder if the candidates are really talking to them.
"People down in this part of Ohio sometimes wonder if anybody knows they are here,’’ said Jim Dummit, a 49-year-old grandfather from the Gallia County village of Rio Grande, who knows perfectly well the consequences of a sour economy. He has lost two good-paying jobs in recent years to layoffs and plant closings.
"Places like this are full of hard-working, God-fearing people,’’ Dummit said "They just want some hope to hang on to. And, when they go to vote, they want to know their votes count."
The Obama campaign has not forgotten rural Ohio nor dismissed them based on the notion that he could never win any rural voters.
The Obama campaign looks at Appalachian Ohio and sees an opportunity in the economic chaos of recent months; they believe – and the polls bear out – that their candidate has the advantage when it comes to the economy, which is, by far, issue number one in Appalachia.
The article then goes on to chronicle the work that governer Ted Strickland is doing to get Obama elected by talking to rural voters. I was so surprised to see Strickland use the same metaphor I used when talking to a racist Democrat when he campaings for Obama in rural Ohio:
Then, he told them something that most of them had probably not expected, but apparently agreed with, considering how many heads were nodding as he said it:
"There is an elephant in the room,’’ Strickland said, "and I think we need to talk about it."
People who have grown up in Appalachian Ohio, Strickland said, have had little experience with black people.
"Where I grew up, everybody looked like me,’’ Strickland said. "There weren’t many African-Americans in Duck Run.
"We need to acknowledge the fact that this is a new experience,’’ Strickland said of voting for a black man for president. "And we need to move beyond it."
He recalled a recent conversation with Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, another state where the "elephant in the room" could cause problems for Obama.
"He said, ‘If you were drowning in a river, would you care about the color of the hand that is reaching out to save you?’ No, you would not. And, in this economy, many people are drowning."
Tom Kinner of nearby Sardinia listened to Strickland, nodding in agreement.
He spends his free time working for the Obama campaign, mostly talking to his Republican and independent neighbors trying to persuade them to get on board. He knows perfectly well that race is a factor.
"It plays a role, but all you can do is tell them that if you want change, you have to get past all of that," Kinner said. "But it’s there."
The article doesn't claim that Obama will win Appalachia, but it ends with two optimistic stories about citizens of Appalachia who are volunteering, and voting for, Obama. Here it is:
Upriver from Portsmouth, past the towering power plants and the tiny villages that line the banks of the Ohio, is Gallipolis, one of the oldest towns in Ohio and a town with a long history of voting for Republicans for everything from town clerk to president.
Gallipolis – the "City of Gauls" founded in 1790 by a flatboat full of French immigrants – is like most of southeast Ohio in that it, too, struggles through good times and bad. Here, though, are still some good jobs to be had: at the Bob Evans Sausage plant, the Shell Chemical plant and in the Southern Ohio Coal Company’s mines.
Jim Dummit, 49, of nearby Rio Grande was surprised when he found out that the Obama campaign had taken over the tiny storefront office of the Gallia Democratic Party and put paid staff on the ground.
Dummit, who recently lost a job at a southeast Ohio food processing plant, is a Republican by upbringing and, often, by choice. He voted for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and the present President Bush.
But, he said, he became intrigued by Obama earlier this year; and went to the local library to check out Obama’s two autobiographical books.
"I read them and I was convinced," Dummit said. "This is the candidate who understands the problems that people face; the struggle to keep a job and raise a family. I could identify with him.’"
Since the spring, he has been volunteering at least four days a week at Obama headquarters, calling voters and knocking on doors. He knows any Republican candidate has an advantage here, but he sees an opportunity for the Obama campaign to change some minds.
"We’re a proud people down here; and we’ve been through a lot,’’ Dummit said. "And we deserve better. Maybe, our time has come."
‘I could be the one’
Alicia Moss, 45, of the tiny Pike County village of Beaver, has, indeed, been through a lot.
She has lost jobs due to layoffs; she’s now living on disability payments and raising her 2½-year-old granddaughter, Kayalena, the child of her daughter and a Mexican who had worked in the area.
Moss’s house sticks out in the neat row of well-kept houses on Beaver’s Main Street; the paint is peeling and the porch is about to come crashing down. Moss, who moved to Beaver from Chillicothe a few years ago, hopes that some day soon, the economy will improve and there will be jobs for her and her husband, and they can live in a better place.
She is voting for Obama, she said, because she believes McCain as president would be too much like Bush.
"People say their vote doesn’t count,’’ Moss said. "But I know better. Any one person could win the election for Obama. I could be the one who decides."
I love what Moss says--that she could be the one who decides! As this article points out, Bush only won Ohio by 118,000 in 2004. Obama can cut into that number and increase chances of a victory by getting more votes in Appalachia, and it is clearly possible. With the endorsement from Ralph Stanley and a new media narrative which shows that racism may not be the stumbling block Republicans are hoping for, Obama might be able to significantly close this 118,000 gap--with great GOTV efforts (Cuba Gooding Jr. is going to be at my local Obama office doing GOTV today!), early voting, and an amazing ground game even in Appalachia, Obama is making a real and effective push for Ohio.
This meme about Appalachia is also picked up by RealClearPolitics.com in a link to an LA Times article.
What is stunning to me is how an amazing anti-racist rhetoric is emerging to counter the race issue in the context of Appalachia voters:
When Cecil E. Roberts, president of the coal miners union that shapes politics in much of this mountain region, talks to voters, he tells them that their choice is to have "a black friend in the White House or a white enemy." When Charlie Cox, an Obama supporter, hears friends fretting about Obama's race, he reminds them that they pull for the nearby University of Tennessee football team, "and they're black."
nion organizer Jerry Stallard asks fellow coal workers what's more important: improving their work conditions or holding onto their skepticism of Obama's race, culture or religion. "We're all black in the mines," he tells them.
This is phenomenal--"we're all black in the mines," and says something truly amazing is happening in this country. Could it be that the evil of racism will be pushed aside for the greater good? I think the answer might be yes.
Another interesting thing about the LA Times article--many of the Appalachia folks not persuaded by Obama, or unable to overcome their feelings of uneasiness about him, ARE NOT SAYING THEY WILL VOTE FOR MCCAIN. THEY ARE SAYING THAT WILL NOT VOTE AT ALL:
Looking out at about 70 local Democrats as they ate turkey, ham and mashed potatoes from school cafeteria trays, Phil Puckett, a local state senator who backed Clinton in the primary, said he knew that nearly everyone present had voted for Clinton and that many were not necessarily excited about Obama. But he pleaded with them not to believe everything they were hearing about the Illinois senator, and to seize the chance to boot the GOP from the White House.
"Don't miss this opportunity because someone says to you, 'I'm not voting for him because he's Muslim,' " said Puckett. "If there's a word of truth in my body, this guy is a Christian who believes in Jesus Christ."
Ben and Beth Bailey sat in the back and clapped politely, but they remained unpersuaded. They said they were likely to break from their tradition of voting Democratic and might well not vote at all.
This means McCain can't count on these voters. That's a better state of affairs than folks voting for McCain because of the race factor.
Furthermore, Obama is not re-inventing the wheel in some Appalachia areas:
History suggests that a black candidate could win support here. In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder carried Buchanan and other nearby counties as he became the country's first black elected governor since Reconstruction. Many here recall that Wilder kicked off his campaign in the region and aggressively courted whites.
What is so interesting about this is that many of these Appalachian voters are realizing, perhaps for the first time, that race is just wedge that is used to keep them down:
Beth's father, Josh Viers, is the party's Whitewood precinct chairman, responsible for working the polls and urging Democrats to vote the party line. He came around to backing Obama only recently, and reluctantly.
"Am I racial? Am I prejudiced? No, I'm not," said Viers. Still, he is frustrated that his job is to persuade other Democrats to back a black man.
"Somebody in Buchanan County or in the United States can look at him and say, 'He's not my color,' " said Viers. "Why put yourself in that position? We had a shot four years ago, and the people listened to lies, rumors, negative ads and got us beat. Bush got him a second term, and look what it got us."
This is very important. The lesson we can learn from this, from the Obama campaign, is that to win we mustn't allow assumptions about what can be done to structure what we do. During the primary people insisted that working class whites would not vote for Obama. And many of them won't--but many of them will. For years, it has been assumed that young people and African Americans will not vote. Time will tell how effective the GOTV effort turns out to be--but we've already seen record turnout in the primaries.
Let's never give up--no matter what they throw at us, no matter what kind of sick history they try to use to say what we dream is impossible. It is possible for so many of us get on board together even if we don't see eye to eye on every issue. Wouldn't it be amazing if Obama got half the votes in Appalachia? If we keep pushing and keep calling and keep believing, it can happen.