I could write a lot (more) but am short on time, so here are the highlights:
Blankenship is a former coal mining operation owner who was convicted of conspiring to hide safety violations - violations which likely led to the deaths of 29 coal workers as a result of an explosion at one of the facilities his company operated. He ended up being convicted and served time in federal prison. Around this time he was once regarded as the most hated man in West Virginia.
Fast forward to now, he’s dangerously close to leading in a race for the Republican nomination in the United States Senate race against Democratic incumbent, Joe Manchin. His campaign has been predictably toxic, including recent campaign ads in which he referred to Mitch McConnell as “cocaine Mitch” and appeared to take a dig at his wife’s race by referring to Mitch’s “China family.”
And then there was this exchange on twitter this morning.
The Donald on Twitter wrote:
To which Blankenship replied at a town hall event:
Holy Christ, this guy’s a dick. Not that he’s wrong about Trump’s support of Roy Moore - he has a point there. But this guy is just as nasty as they get, and yet it seems like a lot of poor, angry people in West Virginia want mean and nasty, and lots of it.
How the heck can a guy who’s responsible for those coal miner deaths get such traction in West Virginia? Is he really running ahead in coal mining areas?
Just more of the Trumpification (and Roy-Moore-ification, and maybe soon the Blankenshipification) of the Republican party. This is the future of the party, at least for the short and medium term, I think. There is a significant minority of the country that wants open xenophobes, racists, and/or misogynists in elected office. Maybe large enough to dominate the party.
It’s Abusive Boyfriend Syndrome. He’s promising – even more so than Donald and bragging that he’s “more Trump than Trump” – to bring back coal mining jobs. And the way to do that is with less regulation of and tax breaks for the mines. So you’ll have a job, it’s just that your chances of getting killed while doing it will be going up.
Nobody understands West Virginia voters quite like coal mine executives.
DC mayor Marion “the bitch set me up” Barry went to prison for doing coke and when he got out he was re-elected Mayor. Prison time does not mean much to some people.
I try to understand the type of voters he’s appealing to, I really do, but I just can’t wrap my mind around their mindset. Don’t they realize that they’re a lot more likely to be harmed by people like Blankenship than by China People? If I had to guess, I would guess that fewer than 29 West Virginians have been killed by “China People” in the last 10 years. Yet the Blankenship voters seem to be more afraid of the “China People” than they are of Blankenship. I don’t get it.
He’s been saying that he was railroaded by an Obama prosecutor and an Obama judge. In other words, playing the “wealthy white victim” card, and playing into the culture wars.
His creepy ad reminds me of the old Junior Samples car dealer ads on Hee Haw.
I wish him the best of luck tomorrow and hope the I am not a witch Christine O’Donnell makes another go at it somewhere too. Oh, and there are a few states Scott Brown hasn’t lost in yet, he should make a run somewhere too. And let’s get Sharron Angle back in the action as well.