“For the second time in eighteen months, West Virginia has become a bellwether for the nation according to many pundits. In the fall of 2016, reporters latched onto “Trump whisperer” J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, to explain why the once solidly Democratic state now led the country in voting for the Republican candidate. According to Vance, a toxic mix of defeatism, dependency, and dysfunction created a groundswell of support for candidates who promised to make America great again by allowing energy companies to have free reign in the state. West Virginia had become so Republican that its governor Jim Justice, elected in 2016 as a Democrat, switched parties just seven months later.
Fast forward to February 22, 2018 and the color red assumes an entirely different meaning. The state’s 22,000 teachers and school service personnel donned red t-shirts and bandanas in a symbolic nod toward West Virginia’s militant and radical labor history. Like the “redneck” miners after World War I who defied coal operators, local authorities and, for a time, the federal government in their demands for union recognition and full citizenship rights during the West Virginia coal wars, teachers walked off the job this month, forcing all 55 counties to close schools for eleven days, until teachers won a 5 percent raise and a 16-month moratorium on increases in their health premiums. Once again, reporters flocked to the state, hoping to capture the crest of a new wave.
Which West Virginia represents the reality? Minus Vance’s stagnant cultural determinism, both do, and there is the conundrum. Beneath the euphoria surrounding the incredible grass-roots solidarity of the teachers’ walkout, there are some vexing pitfalls. The state legislature, the governor, and all but one of West Virginia’s Congressional delegations are solidly in the Trump camp. Their economic philosophy is unlikely to fix the problems that brought teachers to picket lines — stagnant low wages, a dismal health insurance plan (PEIA) for public employees that demands rising premiums and higher deductibles, and unrealistic expectations that schools should shoulder the hardships that poverty inflicts on children. Few realize how much teachers do to ensure that their students have nutrition, clothing, and basic educational tools, often dipping into their own pockets to supply them. Will we also ask them to carry guns and put their lives on the line to protect their students?”
