I'm seeing a bunch of articles about "Hillbillies" & other rural whites...

[The Polack MSgt]

More than I care to and way more than I ever thought I would.

I feel compelled to comment, since the tone of most of these essays seems clueless and dismissive of what I feel are obvious motivations for their behavior. Writing a treatise on rural white folk with the attitude of a 1930's National Geographic magazine discussing a newfound Amazon tribe does us no damn good.

So what led so many white folks to rally around a racist and incompetent sexual predator?

First off, I am not here to bash them, hell I am them.

Second, just remember that no amount of "understanding" absolves them - They fucking poured arsenic in the water because they assumed only "other people" would have to drink it. Like John Scalzi said - empathy not sympathy. So let me chew your ear for a minute...

I was raised in coal country and I live in corn country now.

As a teen/young adult I watched amazed as Reagan got away with putting a black face on government services and demonizing labor unions.

He did it to tap into the hatred and distrust bubbling under the surface of my neighbors and cousins. And it worked.

I was dumbfounded when almost overnight mill workers and miners abandoned the party that did more to raise their standard of living than any republican ever even tried to do.

Because of Cadillac driving welfare queens. Atheists. Mexicans.

And the absolute ace in the hole since forever - Democrats will take your guns. Yes that is a big deal. A very big deal.

You can take all your arguments and shove them because if the government doesn't trust us - the God fearing patriots in (fill in the blank West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania or wherever) then we can't trust them. Your logic and statistics do not make a dent and never will.

We grew up with guns. We all own some, and all 35 years of pushing for gun control has accomplished is now instead of a deer rifle a 22 a shotgun and maybe a 38 revolver my cousins have multiple pistols and AR and AK rifles as well.

For my family deer season was really harvest season. Between the uncles (and one Aunt), cousins, my dad and I - we filled several freezers with meat that we ate through out the year. Gun control was an immediate hackle raiser with all of us.

I won't down play the racism though... It's racist as fuck in the Appalachians and 45 tapped into that vein even harder than Reagan