Rednecks: A Liberal Legacy, Gone With The Wind

For five days in the Fall of 1921, as many as 10,000 coal miners stood up for their rights as hard working Americans and engaged in what would become the greatest insurrection on U.S. soil since the Civil War. The Battle for Blair Mountain, as it would be called, took the lives of more than a dozen men, injuring several hundred more. The 30,000-man militia hired by the coal companies used machine guns to quell the rebellion, and even assaulted the workers from the air by raining homemade bombs upon them. Many thousands of rounds were spent before the ordeal was over.

A train loaded with miners heads to the battlefield at Blair Mountain. Photo courtesy of West Virginia & Regional History Collection.

Known as “rednecks” for the red bandannas they wore to distinguish friend from foe, these coal miners fought to overturn the oppression that can only exist in a?laissez-faire market system. All miners were paid with “scrip,” a private currency that only the mining company would accept. Whatever the company lost in wages was funneled right back to its source, because the mining company also owned the homes the miners rented. They ran the stores where the miners bought their groceries. Any signs of protest were quickly picked up by company spies.? Any hope for unionization was swiftly neutralized, because the mining company also owned the local police force, the court system, and its own military.

Image from Blair Mountain Heritage Alliance

For those five days in 1921, the West Virginia coal miners stood up for their rights, their needs, their family, and their country. They helped to bring national attention to the plight of the working class. Indeed, the original “rednecks” were liberal revolutionaries.


Things have changed, haven’t they? Today, “redneck” culture has abandoned its original standards. Today, it glorifies conservative “principles,” turning the act of voting against your own self-interests into a time-honored tradition, not taboo.

 


Case in point. Owsley County, Kentucky, is the poorest county in all 50 states. It also has the highest usage of SNAP benefits (food stamps) nationwide. Yet, the county is 95% Republican.

WELFARE ’08! Image from DailyKos. I’m not entirely convinced that that’s a lightbulb hanging over Obama’s head….

I am sure you haven’t forgotten that the GOP is the harshest critic of the “welfare state,” and works diligently to eliminate “wasteful spending” on such programs. That is why Owsley County suffered tremendous cuts in their SNAP benefits when they voted for the GOP last November. Ironic, isn’t it?


Case in point. Mississippi is the least healthy state in the U.S. It is:

  • Number 1 for obesity rates
  • Number 2 for the lowest ratio of doctors by population
  • Number 1 for the highest number of heart-related deaths
  • Number 1 for leg amputations (usually a result of diabetes)
  • Number 1 for the highest infant mortality rates
  • Number 1 for the number of years lost due to premature death (more then 10 millenia per 100,000 people)

Mississippi is also the ONLY state that witnessed an INCREASE in uninsured rates after the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) went into effect. Why?

This is the Phil Bryant who denied health insurance to the Americans that need it most, and then blamed the failure on the people who tried to make it accessible. Shameful. Image from Wikimedia.

Because the Republican governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, refused to expand Medicaid, a key part of making Obamacare work. Despite the efforts of those who worked to bring the heath care exchange to life, (including that of Republican Insurance Commissioner, Mike Chaney), the right-wing disinformation machine managed to keep many Mississippians in the dark. By the time the Federal Exchange opened for business, 7-in-10 Mississippians confessed to having no knowledge of the news. Tineciaa Harris, a healthcare navigator for Mississippi, lamented, ?We would talk to people who say, ?I don’t want anything about Obamacare. I want the Affordable Care Act.’ And we’d have to explain to them that it’s the same thing.?

Mike Chaney, a man who hasn’t lost his principles. Courtesy of Mississippi Insurance Department.

Yet Phil Bryant had the nerve to shift the blame for the worsening heath care standards in his state on Obamacare, not his own deceitful, murderous schemes. Instead of respecting his role as an elected official, whose responsibility is to increase the (direly-needed) well-being of his constituents, he intentionally puts lives at risk to make a self-serving political point. Then, as if that wasn’t despicable enough, Bryant spins the lies even further by making himself look like a hero for standing up to Obamacare, ensuring the continued propagation of oxymoronic conservative ideals.


To be called a “redneck” used to be an honorable thing. “Redneck” used to mean someone who valued hard work, family, and honesty at all costs. They were always ready to fight for a just society, where hard work pays off, family is never left behind, and honesty breeds respect. They have since been duped and sold out by GOP politicians, who have themselves been bought out by the same corporate evils that their own forefathers fought to defeat. It’s a shame that such a proud legacy could be reduced to this.

Clayton Ousley lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his beautiful daughter, Charlotte (a German Shepherd/Alaskan Malamute mix). He has a BA in History and Intelligence Studies from Notre Dame College, and is currently working on his MA in Military History from Norwich University. He enjoys playing his bagpipes, reading, hiking, and cooking ethnic foods.