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| Blogger in Aberdeen WA this summer |
While Hillary Clinton easily prevailed in Washington state, there is reason for the Democrats to be concerned there. Grays Harbor County, where the biggest town is Aberdeen, Kurt Cobain's hometown, flipped from Democrat to Republican. It was the first time the Pacific coast county went for the GOP in a presidential election since 1928.
Other Washington rural counties went deep red for Trump and Westneat notes they are also the ones that signed up for ObamaCare at the highest rate in the state. Singling out Grays Harbor he comments, "Yet the county that's relying on it just voted for the candidate who vowed to get rid ofit."
Westneat appears shocked. I'm not. Grays Harbor is struggling economically. Many of those ObamaCare subscribers enrolled only because they are faced with two bad options. Pay a fine or buy health insurance. And in the part-time Obama economy, many workers aren't even offered employer-based health insurance.
As for the so-called Affordable Health Care Act, what Michael Moore calls "the shitty ObamaCare Bronze Plan" is expensive--and it doesn't cover that much.
Westneat makes the ludicrous claim that ObamaCare "was scarcely talked about" during the campaign. Perhaps that was the case in Seattle, but the massive ObamaCare rate hikes announced in October likely helped tip the balance for Trump in the former "blue wall" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. And yes, repealing ObamaCare was frequently mentioned the Trump at his rallies.
Another reason for the rural Washington shift: The Democrats are the party of the environmental extremists, and they are vociferous opponents of the timber industry, which was once a big employer in Washington. And farmers face increasing amounts of EPA regulations, Obama weaponized, metaphorically speaking of course, the EPA.
As for ObamaCare, rural Washington voters flocked to Trump because of ObamaCare, not in spite of it.
The dogs just don't like the food.
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