We need a Marshall Plan for Middle America

NYC is broke too.

Every one of those aforementioned mayors is a Democrat, so I don't think it's fair to punish them (or their constituents) for the sins of the truly deplorable.

The ideas put forth sound pragmatic enough -- expanding digital access and switching over to renewable energy. Good luck convincing the GOP to pass any legislation or budget though. They're the ones who stand to lose the most, since they feed on the anger, despair, and overall hopelessness in the area.

they didn't vote for poverty, they voted for racism, the thing that is most important to them

Agreed. I'm tired of our federal dollars going to these Trump supporting states.

And what about Kentucky? I thought Mitch the Bitch was taking care of them? They just reelected him! How deluded are these people?

[quote] Marshall Plan

Oh, dear.

The Kurt Marshall Plan?

I think everyone can get behind the Penny Marshall plan. Doing it her way, she'll make all your dreams come true.

[quote]But these states, in 2016, voted for Trump. Didn't he make America Great Again? Didn't he get them huge increases in coal mining and manufacturing, like he promised? No? Then why did three out of the four voted for Trump AGAIN in 2020??? You get what you voted for. FUCKING POVERTY

These areas have been depressed for a long time. Trump has been President less than 4 years. He didn't create the problem. Who was in office 8 years before that? Oh yeah the guy who's now President-elect, right? He was VP. Are you in denial, or willfully ignorant, or what? Neither party helps these voters. Give them something to vote for and they will vote for it. I wish I didn't have to say it so much. In 20 years maybe people will finally get it.

And by the way, if a state goes for a candidate it doesn't mean everyone in the state voted for that person. So you're saying all the hundreds of thousands who didn't vote for Trump in these states should also have to pound sand.

The United States won't be viable if the most privileged and educated (DL?) want revenge on those who are religion-ridden and stuck in lousy jobs.

[quote] Who was in office 8 years before that?

If you really want to go back and pinpoint why these areas are economically depressed, you're going to have to go back a lot further than 4 or 8 or 12 years ago. Republican darling Ronald Reagan and his voodoo-nonsense trickle-down economics, gutting of unions and manufacturing jobs, deserves quite a bit of praise for his role in that.

OP This makes sense to me, and given the rantings on another thread about Mayor Pete not being appointed UN Ambassador, etc., this would indeed be a great position for him. It would be territory that Pete is enormously qualified for and give him a platform for the future. Furthermore, if successfully implemented, it would cement the argument that white working class voters belong in the Democratic Party tent.

Can you imagine the decrepitude if there was no TVA?

Personally, I’d like to start with Puerto Rico. I know it’s corrupt. We’d have to bypass the politics there, as best as we can.

There used to be some benefit for pharmaceutical companies to locate there. I think it worked, but they moved out when the benefit expired. We could recreate something like that. Then, they need a new electrical grid. Create a new water and sewage system that runs down the main roads. Then, leave it to individuals and local government to tie-in the specific homes to the new system. Then create wi-fi for the entire island. Make their main roads modern and so that they last for another 20 years. While doing this, lay down the newest fiber optic cables. Any other utilities?

Then, give tax breaks or other benefits for the hospitality industry. There is no reason that the island can’t be the East Coast’s version of Hawaii.

Fuck 'em. We already rescued their trailer park, white backward asses 87 years ago with the Tennessee Valley Authority, pouring billions into their local economy and trying to educate them to prevent them from fucking their mothers and grandmas.

The junkie lazy white trash of Appalachia is NOT "Middle America."

[quote] NYC is broke too.

So NYC will raise taxes, which will jumpstart the economy.

None of those states will raise taxes on the rich because they keep voting for Republicans. So, they will stay poor forever, waiting for their next federal handout.

Dumping the dead weight would be a start.

[quote] The United States won't be viable if the most privileged and educated (DL?) want revenge on those who are religion-ridden and stuck in lousy jobs

They are stuck in lousy jobs not because DL wants revenge but because that what they keep voting for.

But wouldn't that be socialism?

Socialism is only for the rich!

Hillary Clinton told these people that coal jobs aren't coming back and showed them a path to jobs in renewable energy. Trump promised them more coal jobs and failed to deliver. Fuck them.

West Virginians who are two or three generations from any relative who worked in one think that if only coal mines would reopen and it will be six-figure jobs for everyone.

Pennsylvanians from the central and western regions and Ohioans think steel mills and manufacturing jobs will deliver them into prosperity.

Kentuckians just want the whitest motherfucking man on the ballot and don't care about anything else except rubbing their plug ugly ignorant faces at people they perceive to have more or better. Like the Farm Vote, it's a vote to say Listen to my whiny bitch song and dance about people I only know from TV whose looks I don't like: bow down to me, I'm from the Breadbasket and I been been voting against my own interests for 4 decades.

Wave a fucking flag and say a few words about factories and agriculture and against immigrants and we'll vote Ku Klux Klan got 40 more years.

We are NOT Middle America. But sadly, the sick, backward, masochistic fucks in this state voted for Trump. The entire population isn't like that. It just so happens that the majority is what counts, which meant the state carried Trump in 2016 AND 2020.

It's actually a beautiful state, but I can't wait to get the fuck out.

Only a billion? Hell, I could write a check for that today.

The GOP tax law grabbed money for the wealthy blue states to ostensibly help these red states, but looks like the money will go to the wealthy in those states.

It goes back much farther than Reagan. The socioeconomic struggles of “the South” can literally be precisely pinpointed to the Civil War. They were literally decimated and razed in most of the South. So yes, 150 years later, it still is a hot mess. The whole point of having a Senator is that they advocate for their home state. Why these people think McTurtle is doing right by them, I’ll never understand.

I'm more in favor of this than the bllions and billions of dollars wasted on continuous farmer welfare --- errr, 'agricultural subsidies.'

I honestly don't care if they choose to starve themselves to death.

Life goes on just fine for me.

Pennsylvania made a mistake with Trump in 2016 and then corrected it this year. It usually votes Blue and has more in common with Michigan and Wisconsin. Ohio, West Virginia, and especially Kentucky are certified-deplorable.

None of these states have much industry, Coal is dead, not just because of the climate change but because fracking is cheaper and easier.

We had Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War, but it came with conditions (all men are created equal, after all) that they couldn't abide; so, when we had a close election between Democrat Samuel J. Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, we settled on the Compromise of 1877 that threw the South's support to Hayes in exchange for the end of Reconstruction and allowing the South to do whatever they wanted to the former slaves which gave us Jim Crow laws and the suppression of blacks for another century and a half (and counting). It was, for all intents and purposes, the beginning of the shift from Democrats to Republicans in the South, and we can all see how well that's worked out. And besides, they're still fighting the Civil War in the South, even if only in their fevered, tiny minds.

Bottom line, no more reconstruction, no more welfare, and no more blue state dollars going to the South. It's the only way they'll learn.

That would be a hard "no" to a Marshall Plan for what you're calling "Middle America". Why can't they just be self reliant and pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

WV has vast potential for tourism: ecotourism, trail hiking, white water rafting, golf resorts, historic small towns and inns and performing arts, etc. etc. It has those, but it's not especially a coherent "industry." And the state has a godawful (and well-deserved) reputation.

It's a gorgeous place, but filled with addicted, uneducated, defeatist and racist losers who won't vote for the leadership the state deserves.

Basically a Marshall Plan means take billions from other states to help these pathetic states, right?

As R20, said, Hillary Clinton advocated vocational programs to transition these out of work, blue-collar individuals into jobs dealing with Renewable Energy....ya know, the future and all and they promptly voted for Trump.

As another poster said, some of the red-state democrats should not be penalized as they are trying. We welcome them to join us on our elite coastal areas...everybody else: mAkE AmErIcA gReAt aGaIn!

Yes R5, op is correct. Marshall Plan. Although I think the Works Progress Administration would probably be more what he meant. WPA was the US version of the European Marshall Plan. It got a lot of unemployed Americans working with public works programs all over the US.

Building new infrastructure, arts groups, science projects, and just about any other improvement project would qualify.

The WPA produced some amazing art!!! Their printed posters are highly collectible.

The WPA produced some amazing art!!! Their printed posters are highly collectible.

If they voted for trump, they deserve shit

Why don’t they all just become hookers, like all good poor people do?

WV has potential for trailer trash, white racists, meth heads, opoid addicts, welfare cheats and magats. no one else will ever go near that shit hole

Marshall, Marshall, Marshall!