What’s the Matter with Appalachia? Nothing that Joe Biden — and Tyler Childers — Can’t Fix

During the Great Depression, FDR solidified the generational allegiance of working and unemployed families in the South by funding major federal projects there, like the Tennessee Valley Authority. By bringing electricity — and jobs — to the forgotten and hollowed out corners of the South, President Roosevelt won the deep loyalty of poor Southerners, who stuck with the Democratic Party until it sided with the civil rights movement. (Race, it always divides and conquers working Americans.)

Now President Biden has declared he will go beyond his hero by retraining the tens of thousands workers who earn their living in coal mining, fracking and other dirty energy fields and giving them unionized jobs in the green future. Unlike President Roosevelt, he will massively invest in clean energy jobs that will benefit both white AND black workers. “Today is climate day in the White House, which means that today is also jobs day in the White House,” stated Biden yesterday, making it clear that he won’t allow Republicans to also do their divide and conquer act on workers and environmentalists.

This is the best possible way for Democrats to win back the South, especially deep red states like West Virginia, which gave Trump his biggest vote percentage in the last election — nearly 70 percent! Coal-mining Kentucky and Ohio also gave Trump healthy margins in November, and must-win Pennsylvania was closer than it should’ve been because of Trump’s embrace of fracking and other dirty energy.

Who wants to hang onto the old ways in the blasted terrain of coal country? Not the mayors and healthcare workers and labor unions (what’s left of them) — they see every day what a declining economy tied to a 19th century fuel source is doing to the people of Appalachia. Last year, for the first time, renewable energy accounted for more jobs than coal. In the place of a vibrant economy and a proud, unionized labor force, these fossil fuel states now have pills, booze, guns and Trumpism. It’s a deadly brew.

But now President Biden is pointing the way to a new future for Appalachia. And so are young musicians like Tyler Childers. I began listening to the songs of this young son of eastern Kentucky in recent weeks, though he’s been touring and recording for several years. His father was a coal miner and his mother a nurse — somehow a perfect combination for this ravaged region. Listening to his soulful songs, I can’t think of my white brothers and sisters from the South as the enemy. And, in the middle of America’s trauma last year, Childers released a video that made clear how deeply connected white and blacks are in this country — and said loud and clear that the races must no longer be divided and conquered.

I’m a skeptical journalist. But Joe Biden gives me hope. Tyler Childers gives me hope. Watch him perform these songs; watch his video. They’re bleak, they’re heartbroken — but they’re deeply real. And they make me believe in America again.

Tyler Childers on video:

“Keep Your Nose on the Grindstone” (and out of the pills). Damn, this song gives me chills every time I hear it.

“Whitehouse Road” — Self-annihilation as liberation. “It’s a damn good feeling to run these roads”

“Tattoos” Black and blue heart.

Tyler Childers’s unpreachy sermon about America’s racial divide. A remarkable statement by this white son of the South.