As I drove west over the I-470 bridge crossing the Ohio River, I glanced over my left shoulder to see the decaying neighborhoods of south Wheeling, West Virginia. I was surprised by the colors of rust and brown that permeated everything and the buildings that seemed to be melting into the ground. Abandoned. Left to collapse under the weight of neglect.
I turned around in Ohio to go back and take a closer look, because I was so shocked to see such rubble in an American town.
West Virginia is a mostly rural state with a population of about 1.8 million spread over 24,000 square miles. Its hills and valleys are among the most beautiful in the eastern United States, but that same beauty - presenting as it does in difficult terrain - has made development and communication challenging. Over the decades, the state's economy has failed to achieve the same level of success as its neighboring states in part because of where it is.
West Virginia is not only perceived as a poor state from the outside, a large part of the population acknowledges that standing. The decline of the coal industry has made life difficult for many.
The cold gray of mid-winter adds to the feeling that this is a part of the country that feels left behind, especially by the government in Washington, D.C.
Once solidly Democratic, West Virginia is now considered to be a Republican state in national elections. Its governor is a Republican, its three congressmen are Republican, one U.S. Senator is a Republican and the other, Joe Manchin, a former governor, is a conservative Democrat.
President Trump made a direct appeal to West Virginia in 2016 by promising to bring back the coal industry. Although that did not happen, the state still voted for him in 2020 by a margin of almost forty percent over Joe Biden, who declared in the final debate of the campaign, that fossil fuels were the way of the past.
Although President Trump failed to deliver economic revival to West Virginia, he is not the first politician to let the state down. The opening for Trump in this state was made by political leaders who came before him who also failed to make a difference. In that respect, West Virginia's relationship with Trump is similar to other areas of the country, where things are not getting better and the argument, "What do you have to lose?," plays well. The pitch sounds reasonable given the context. When compared to the policy proposals of a candidate like Biden, who is essentially promising more dark before any light, West Virginians decided to stick with Trump.
This general feeling that government is not working no matter who is in charge is not limited to economically distressed areas, or to the United States. During my international travels, a year ago, (110 Days) it is a theme I ran into constantly - from Asia, to Europe and South America. People are generally losing faith that government systems can do anything to help them in their daily lives and there is a deeper belief that people who are in government are in it for themselves.
With that background, it is easier to understand why candidates whose policy positions were once viewed as fringe, can catch on. Voters are attracted to the idea of shaking up or even dismantling the system, and some are willing to go as far as marching on the U.S. Capitol, though their motivations for doing so are varied and their demands or solutions are not clear.
From the perspective of places like Charleston and Wheeling, West Virginia there seems to be no easy way forward. The pandemic has made everything harder and created a new obstacle. The state's population is declining as people leave in search of opportunity elsewhere. Those left behind are trying to find ways to preserve their way of life, traditions and history - though at times it must feel as if the odds are against them.
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© Dean Pagani 2021
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© Dean Pagani 2021