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May 21, 2008

Harlan County takes sides

By Clarice Feldman and Rosslyn Smith

Every since the 1930s, the urban and academic left has championed the miners of rural Kentucky to show their solidarity with the working class.  The struggles of workers in this region to unionize was memorialized in numerous songs that entered the repertoire of popular left wing musicians from Woody Guthrie and Peter Seeger to Natalie Merchant.  Florence Reece's strident Which Side Are You On  was adopted by both the civil rights and the anti-war movement. 

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on 

So how exactly did the media's anointed agent of progressive change fare in Harlan County yesterday?  Barak Obama got just 9% of the vote.  As bad as that is, it's almost double the percentage he won in nearby Floyd and Magoffin counties.
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