‘No Christian could v**e Democrat’: Inside the most Republican county in America
Oct 14, 2020 17:37:06 #
In parts of Appalachia, the pace of change can now be measured by the whizz of a high-speed internet connection.
For many years, swathes of eastern Kentucky suffered many of the deprivations of being disconnected from the wider world - poor health, poverty and few opportunities.
In the last few years, high speed internet, and with it the chance to tele-commute, has had a t***sformational impact
And yet in Jackson County, 60 miles southeast of Lexington, some things have not budged. This county of 13,000 people has v**ed Republican since the US Civil War, and it is hugely enamoured by the current Republican president, Donald Trump, and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell.
In 2016, Jackson County, which has just one small town, McKee, which is “wet“ whereas the rest of the county is “dry”, went for Mr Trump 88 per cent. Every indication is that it will do so again.
“You won’t find many Democrats up here,” said Anthony Brody, 65, sitting in his truck outside a Walgreens pharmacy.
A woman seated alongside him, Connie Ray, said she too would be v****g for Mr Trump and Mr McConnell. She said Democrats wanted to “k**l little babies”.
Nearby, just about to leave the parking lot, Tricia Lewis and Bunny Tilley, were similarly adamant. They liked Mr Trump “because everyone else h**es him” and thought Mr McConnell had done a lot to help miners in the area who had lost their jobs as the industry declined.
In parts of Appalachia, the pace of change can now be measured by the whizz of a high-speed internet connection.
For many years, swathes of eastern Kentucky suffered many of the deprivations of being disconnected from the wider world - poor health, poverty and few opportunities.
In the last few years, high speed internet, and with it the chance to tele-commute, has had a t***sformational impact
And yet in Jackson County, 60 miles southeast of Lexington, some things have not budged. This county of 13,000 people has v**ed Republican since the US Civil War, and it is hugely enamoured by the current Republican president, Donald Trump, and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell.
In 2016, Jackson County, which has just one small town, McKee, which is “wet“ whereas the rest of the county is “dry”, went for Mr Trump 88 per cent. Every indication is that it will do so again.
“You won’t find many Democrats up here,” said Anthony Brody, 65, sitting in his truck outside a Walgreens pharmacy.
A woman seated alongside him, Connie Ray, said she too would be v****g for Mr Trump and Mr McConnell. She said Democrats wanted to “k**l little babies”.
Nearby, just about to leave the parking lot, Tricia Lewis and Bunny Tilley, were similarly adamant. They liked Mr Trump “because everyone else h**es him” and thought Mr McConnell had done a lot to help miners in the area who had lost their jobs as the industry declined.
Was it not time for a change, given he had already served six terms. What about his challenger, Amy McGrath?
“She should be at home looking after her children,” claimed Ms Tilley.
When it was pointed out the 45-year-old Ms McGrath had been a fighter plot for the US Marines and the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Corps, she said: “That doesn’t matter.”
Some in Jackson County, located in the Daniel Boone National Forest, currently lit orange with the colours of autumn, said they were not opposed v****g for a Democrat per se.
But Mary Gabbard admitted the last time she v**ed for a Democrat was for Jimmy Carter in 1976, and suggested it was because “Jimmy” also went to church.
“The Democrats are for everything the bible is against, and I don’t feel any Christian could v**e Democrat,” said the 74-year-old. “They are for a******ns, k*****g little babies, they are for the homosexual-gay rights. They’re just for for everything that the bible is against.”
Her husband, 83-year-old Bobby Gabbard, a friendly man who was happy enough to pose for a photograph in front of the large Republican banner set in his lawn, said he never v**ed for a Democrat.
Asked if they would be watching the vice p**********l debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, himself an outspoken conservative Christian, they said they would be going to church instead.Ten miles away, in the community of Ammville, Brian Bales said he had once been Democrat and twice v**ed for Barack Obama. He said Mr Obama campaigned as a “real statesman” though he thought his presidency had brought little meaningful change.
Now, he said, the Democratic Party no longer stood for the interests of working people. He v**ed for Donald Trump in 2016 and will do so again.
“He’s a businessman. We need a businessman in charge,” he said.
A number or organizations in the half-dozen states that include part of the Appalachians have worked to present a more complete and nuanced context of the mountains and their residents. Most of the time they appear in the news is it in stories associated with poverty, opioid addiction and black lung disease.
And those issues remain very real. A report published last year by USA Today suggested that ten of the worst 25 counties to live in in the US in terms of life expectancy, the number of people with a bachelors degree and the poverty rate, were located in Kentucky. Among them was Jackson County, which has a poverty rate of 33 per cent, and where “Gabbard” is a common surname.
Carla Gabbard, 46, said she thought the mountains were changing, and gave credit to the high-speed internet connection, work on which started five years ago. She said she worked for a non-profit organisation that recruited and trained people in places such as Jackson County, to work from home for national companies.
She said she believed that for many years, the people of Appalachia had suffered from a discriminatory view that saw them as lazy and backwards.
“People here want to work,” she said. “But it has only been the last five or six years that they have had these opportunities”
She said she had not decided who she would be v****g for this year and said she intended to watch the vice p**********l debate to help make up her mind.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-christian-could-v**e-democrat-103908119.html
For many years, swathes of eastern Kentucky suffered many of the deprivations of being disconnected from the wider world - poor health, poverty and few opportunities.
In the last few years, high speed internet, and with it the chance to tele-commute, has had a t***sformational impact
And yet in Jackson County, 60 miles southeast of Lexington, some things have not budged. This county of 13,000 people has v**ed Republican since the US Civil War, and it is hugely enamoured by the current Republican president, Donald Trump, and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell.
In 2016, Jackson County, which has just one small town, McKee, which is “wet“ whereas the rest of the county is “dry”, went for Mr Trump 88 per cent. Every indication is that it will do so again.
“You won’t find many Democrats up here,” said Anthony Brody, 65, sitting in his truck outside a Walgreens pharmacy.
A woman seated alongside him, Connie Ray, said she too would be v****g for Mr Trump and Mr McConnell. She said Democrats wanted to “k**l little babies”.
Nearby, just about to leave the parking lot, Tricia Lewis and Bunny Tilley, were similarly adamant. They liked Mr Trump “because everyone else h**es him” and thought Mr McConnell had done a lot to help miners in the area who had lost their jobs as the industry declined.
In parts of Appalachia, the pace of change can now be measured by the whizz of a high-speed internet connection.
For many years, swathes of eastern Kentucky suffered many of the deprivations of being disconnected from the wider world - poor health, poverty and few opportunities.
In the last few years, high speed internet, and with it the chance to tele-commute, has had a t***sformational impact
And yet in Jackson County, 60 miles southeast of Lexington, some things have not budged. This county of 13,000 people has v**ed Republican since the US Civil War, and it is hugely enamoured by the current Republican president, Donald Trump, and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell.
In 2016, Jackson County, which has just one small town, McKee, which is “wet“ whereas the rest of the county is “dry”, went for Mr Trump 88 per cent. Every indication is that it will do so again.
“You won’t find many Democrats up here,” said Anthony Brody, 65, sitting in his truck outside a Walgreens pharmacy.
A woman seated alongside him, Connie Ray, said she too would be v****g for Mr Trump and Mr McConnell. She said Democrats wanted to “k**l little babies”.
Nearby, just about to leave the parking lot, Tricia Lewis and Bunny Tilley, were similarly adamant. They liked Mr Trump “because everyone else h**es him” and thought Mr McConnell had done a lot to help miners in the area who had lost their jobs as the industry declined.
Was it not time for a change, given he had already served six terms. What about his challenger, Amy McGrath?
“She should be at home looking after her children,” claimed Ms Tilley.
When it was pointed out the 45-year-old Ms McGrath had been a fighter plot for the US Marines and the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Corps, she said: “That doesn’t matter.”
Some in Jackson County, located in the Daniel Boone National Forest, currently lit orange with the colours of autumn, said they were not opposed v****g for a Democrat per se.
But Mary Gabbard admitted the last time she v**ed for a Democrat was for Jimmy Carter in 1976, and suggested it was because “Jimmy” also went to church.
“The Democrats are for everything the bible is against, and I don’t feel any Christian could v**e Democrat,” said the 74-year-old. “They are for a******ns, k*****g little babies, they are for the homosexual-gay rights. They’re just for for everything that the bible is against.”
Her husband, 83-year-old Bobby Gabbard, a friendly man who was happy enough to pose for a photograph in front of the large Republican banner set in his lawn, said he never v**ed for a Democrat.
Asked if they would be watching the vice p**********l debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, himself an outspoken conservative Christian, they said they would be going to church instead.Ten miles away, in the community of Ammville, Brian Bales said he had once been Democrat and twice v**ed for Barack Obama. He said Mr Obama campaigned as a “real statesman” though he thought his presidency had brought little meaningful change.
Now, he said, the Democratic Party no longer stood for the interests of working people. He v**ed for Donald Trump in 2016 and will do so again.
“He’s a businessman. We need a businessman in charge,” he said.
A number or organizations in the half-dozen states that include part of the Appalachians have worked to present a more complete and nuanced context of the mountains and their residents. Most of the time they appear in the news is it in stories associated with poverty, opioid addiction and black lung disease.
And those issues remain very real. A report published last year by USA Today suggested that ten of the worst 25 counties to live in in the US in terms of life expectancy, the number of people with a bachelors degree and the poverty rate, were located in Kentucky. Among them was Jackson County, which has a poverty rate of 33 per cent, and where “Gabbard” is a common surname.
Carla Gabbard, 46, said she thought the mountains were changing, and gave credit to the high-speed internet connection, work on which started five years ago. She said she worked for a non-profit organisation that recruited and trained people in places such as Jackson County, to work from home for national companies.
She said she believed that for many years, the people of Appalachia had suffered from a discriminatory view that saw them as lazy and backwards.
“People here want to work,” she said. “But it has only been the last five or six years that they have had these opportunities”
She said she had not decided who she would be v****g for this year and said she intended to watch the vice p**********l debate to help make up her mind.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-christian-could-v**e-democrat-103908119.html
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