It's not because "intelligent liberal" is an oxymoron...
We almost never see in this forum a thread or a post with a liberal viewpoint that is well-written, articulate and/or supported by facts and figures. True conservatives love to debate. Yet there is no one in this forum who can argue the liberal side smartly or adeptly. We're stuck with morons like Assup, Sissy Chap and Ekim the Chimp. They chime in constantly and never tire of wasting our time (and eccie's bandwidth) as they run up their post counts. In reading some of the liberal comments here, I am often exasperated by the realization that I could argue their side much better than they can!
Outside this forum, I encounter well-written, articulate and data-supported liberal columns all the time. Here's just one example. Notice how the author provides useful numbers to back up his arguments. This makes his arguments stronger, although not beyond refuting (read the link comments too). He challenges the reader and advances the debate - instead of just going around in circles, repeating unsubstantiated talking points or denigrating into homophobic insults the way the childish libtards in this forum do each time they post.
Hard Truths for Trump’s America
Washington didn’t kill coal, but disaffected voters are being sold a story of victimhood.
By WILLIAM A. GALSTON
Sept. 13, 2016 7:22 p.m. ET
If there is a “war on coal,” as Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell allege, it has been under way for a very long time. In Mr. McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, coal mine employment peaked at 75,633 in 1948. It fell by two-thirds to about 25,000 in the late 1960s, before doubling to more than 50,000 in the late 1970s. It has since fallen virtually without interruption and now stands at 6,465.
Much the same is true for West Virginia, the epicenter of Appalachian angst. The state’s coal industry employed close to 120,000 workers in 1950. By the time John F. Kennedy campaigned against Hubert Humphrey in the state’s 1960 primary, the total stood at less than 50,000. After a temporary recovery in the 1970s and another in the first decade of the current century, about 15,000 remain.
Many forces have combined to decimate coal jobs since their mid-20th century peak. According to a 2014 official report from the state government of Kentucky, the principal culprit has been the “automation and mechanization of mining processes, which have improved mining productivity.” Another factor is “diminishing reserves of thick and easily accessible coal seams.” What remains is “more difficult, labor-intensive, and costly to mine.” A 2012 report from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a think tank in Charleston, W.Va., offers much the same account.
As a result, coal faces intensified competitive pressure from natural gas produced through hydraulic fracturing. The U.S. Energy and Information Administration expects this to persist over the next decade.
Both state reports also cite an additional factor: recent federal regulations of greenhouse gases and mercury. But neither regards these policies as a primary cause of coal’s decline. That argument would be absurd on its face, because nearly all the reduction in mining employment occurred before the federal government even began trying to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels.
It is irresponsible for politicians to suggest that these mining jobs will return; they can’t and won’t. And even if mining recovered modestly, it would make at best a small contribution to coal states’ economies. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mining and logging now account for only 3% of West Virginia’s total employment and less than 1% of Kentucky’s. Coal is less an economic development issue than a potent symbol in the partisan culture war. The future lies elsewhere.
Real economic recovery in Appalachia—the heart of Red America—requires facing some hard truths. As of 2015, according to the Census Bureau, West Virginia had the fourth-lowest median household income in the country, and Kentucky the second-lowest. Although neither state is a hub for high-wage jobs, the real problem is that so few of their denizens do any work at all. West Virginia has the lowest labor-force participation rate of any state in the country, 53%, and Kentucky the seventh-lowest, 58.5%. Although older than average populations are a contributing factor, that isn’t the big story: Among prime working-age adults, age 25 to 54, West Virginia ranks dead last, Kentucky next to last.
Here again, we are dealing with longstanding, deeply entrenched forces. The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy reports that the state’s labor-force participation has ranked last every year since 1976, consistently lagging the national average by at least 9 percentage points. Low levels of educational attainment help explain this gap, as does poor health. West Virginians are twice as likely as the average American to receive federal disability payments. Indeed, the share of the state’s adult population dependent on Social Security Disability Insurance is the highest in the country. (Kentucky ranks fourth.)
J.D. Vance, the author of the surprise best-seller “Hillbilly Elegy,” writes about running into a hometown acquaintance who said he had quit his job because he was “sick of waking up early.” Mr. Vance subsequently saw him complaining on Facebook about the “Obama economy.” This man, he comments, is not a victim: His situation is “directly attributable to the choices he’s made.” But nothing in his environment forces him to look in the mirror and ask tough questions about himself. On the contrary, Mr. Vance insists: “There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains adherents by the day.”
The author of “Hillbilly Elegy” is a self-described conservative, but he criticizes his fellow conservatives for failing to tell their constituents the truth. Instead, the message of the right, Mr. Vance says, is: “It’s not your fault that you’re a loser; it’s the government’s fault.”
For decades conservatives have castigated liberals for abandoning the language of personal responsibility and turning their constituents into helpless victims. Now, led by Donald Trump, populist conservatives are doing just that.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hard-tru...ica-1473808938
Why Are There No Intelligent Liberals In the Political Forum?
