Why West Virginia is one of the few states still supporting Trump

A survey has come out which shows that Trump is underwater in almost every state. East of the Mississippi River, Trump is only above water in Alabama and West Virginia. In West Virginia, he has a positive favorability rating with 48% of state residents versus a negative rating with 41%.

My best friend passed away a few years ago. He had been my closest friend since we met when I was 21 and living in a single wide trailer. He was my next-door neighbor, and babysat my two sons on the very few occasions when my wife and I had had enough money to go out to eat. I loved him like a brother.

Son of a coal miner, Don was born on the West Virginia/Pennsylvania border and dropped out of high school to work in the West Virginia coal mines. He ended up in Georgia after he got out of the Army.

A truck driver, he supported Sen. Bernie Sanders for president way back when. But when the Democrats went the other direction in 2016, he became a big Trump supporter and stayed faithful until his death. We talked a lot about exactly why.

He viewed Sanders as for the common person. Although I disagree with Bernie on some issues, I generally do agree. Somehow, he decided early on that Trump was also for the people on the bottom of the rung. And he is not the only one. Per polling, Trump is very popular with white men without college degrees. In fact, it’s about the only group that still supports him and forms the MAGA base.

Here is why: some otherwise good people are brainwashed. But they just don’t understand that fact. It’s just an unfortunate part of human nature. 

Such brainwashing is especially easy to do in today’s climate of political alienation and mistrust, leading to the MAGA cult which believes Trump can do no wrong. One manifestation is the Evangelicals knowing that Trump has flawed person morality, but believing that he is still “God’s vessel.”

Trump’s supporters believe 100% of whatever crazy stuff Trump feeds them. Why?  Because they go to social media sites that reinforce their MAGA cult misperceptions, watch biased news channels Fox, OAN and Newsmax, and associate with people who have similar conspiratorial views. And that is exactly why we had a Trump promoted attempt by his MAGA cult to overthrow our government. These people beat up 140 law enforcement officers, but believed that they were “patriots” because their Supreme Leader told them so.

West Virginia is plagued with many ills. For example, it has some of the worst physical and mental health problems in the nation, coming in 46th on America’s Health Rankings. And the state faces economic problems due in large part to its reliance on a failing industry — coal mining. One study rated its economy as the worst of any state.

A segment of West Virginia’s population is looking for a savior to lead them out of the forest. But Donald Trump is a false prophet, moving in the opposite direction. Someday, I believe that will become obvious.