# Why did Biden lose Kentucky? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 6, 2022, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288 "2022-01-06T00:26:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288/41 "2022-07-15T16:09:12Z")
The really sad thing is that coal mining is a terrible job. Nobody who’s ever tried any other job would ever choose coal mining, even at the high pay. And yet, here are all of these people fighting hard against the opportunity to get better jobs, because they’ve been so lied to that they don’t even know that most jobs aren’t as bad as coal mining. And yes, it was a mistake for Clinton to include that line in that speech. It’s easy to see that in retrospect. But it must be tough for a politician or speechwriter to consider how every single sentence could look, if it’s taken out of context, and they only need to screw up once. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288/42 "2022-07-15T16:11:02Z")
And the soundbite there becomes "[we] are going to make it more challenging for coal companies to keep miners on the job.” It doesn’t matter what she said, it would be perverted by the right wing media to say the opposite of what she actually said. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288/43 "2022-07-15T16:25:10Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The problem was, that even if such a plan had gotten approval, such jobs (if they could be found) were seen as [paying far less than what coal miners were making](https://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/hillary-clinton-aid-coal-communities-215789). That Politico article doesn’t indicate where it gets any numbers, just a quote from a coal industry lobbyist and CEO with no source. Also, if we want to keep coal jobs, in spite of cheaper alternatives that power generation companies prefer to use, we’d have to spend far more to subsidize the industry than retraining the workers to a new one. We’d also have to outlaw the coal companies from automating processes, as that is the biggest driver of job loss. Environmental policies trail far behind natural gas and automation as a reason for the decline in coal jobs. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > As that story indicates, there are numerous other reasons why the Democratic Party has gone from a powerhouse in eastern Kentucky (and elsewhere in the state) to playing catchup. It’s not a hopeless cause (we do have a Democratic governor after all) but the party needs to be smarter - which translates to more than “better messaging”. Basically the tactic is to lie. To tell them that they will get their coal jobs back, even though there’s no way that’s going to happen. That’s what Trump did, and it worked. People prefer a comforting lie to the hard truth. If that’s what it takes to get elected, I don’t know if it’s worth it at the end of the day. [Nearly a quarter of coal mining jobs were lost under Trump](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES1021210001), and there were _no_ jobs programs to help out those who lost their job under him. They were lied to, believed the lies, and suffered for it. My guess is that they haven’t learned their lesson, and will continue to go for the liar that makes false promises to them, rather than the person who tells the truth and offers them real help. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288/44 "2022-07-15T16:33:01Z")
There is frankly no scenario where the Democratic Party is the left-of-center party in an ideologically-organized party system (which is how democracies generally work) and wins nationalized elections in a state like Kentucky. The old party system where the Democratic Party was a coalition of regional interests was not sustainable in a country where everyone can get national news beamed into their eyeballs (and local news from dying newspapers or nowhere at all), and white Appalachian voters are one of the regional interests who got ejected during the realignment as the American party system shifted into a lower state of entropy. The Democratic Party in Kentucky is going to be consigned, _if it is lucky_, to situations like the present, where there is occasionally a Democratic governor to act as a check on the zeal of the dominant party. The reverse happens in states like Massachusetts and Maryland, where Republicans sometimes get elected as governors based on the idea that they’ll put on green eyeshades and keep watch over the Democratic legislature. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288/45 "2022-07-15T17:02:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But it must be tough for a politician or speechwriter to consider how every single sentence could look, if it’s taken out of context, and they only need to screw up once. If they’re a Democrat. Republicans can spout inanities from dawn til dusk without anything coming back to bite them. > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Heck, couldn’t she have just pretty much said the same thing minus that one soundbite? Yep. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > Basically the tactic is to lie. To tell them that they will get their coal jobs back, even though there’s no way that’s going to happen. That’s what Trump did, and it worked. This, too. ---
**Author:** ![JamStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@JamStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JamStar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288/46 "2022-07-16T04:39:36Z")
I have family in rural Arkansas and visit now and then. There has been an odd dichotomy for a while where the vast majority of voter were clearly Republican in national elections -but remained registered as Democrats, as the county Democratic Primary was often the decisive election, and that was the case until around 2020. Apparently this election year, the situation finally flipped - everyone ran as a Republican, and there are literally no Democratic candidates in the general election in the county. I am not sure if it is the fallout of January 6th, or a backlash to Biden, but being even nominally a Democrat for purposes of voting for county coroner or town clerk just became intolerable for some of these mostly white, rural voters. I wonder if that carries through to a broader area. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-biden-lose-kentucky/957288.md?page=2)