Sue Thorn (D-WV) And The Case Against Out Of Touch Elites

I don't know if Chris Hayes has ever heard of David McKinely, the tool of the coal barons who was elected to Congress in 2010 in the Tea Party sweep-- let along Sue Thorn, the intrepid and courageous grassroots activist who is taking on the insider DC Establishment in running against him. As corrupted as your garden variety Republican, DCCC Chair Steve Israel and his Blue Dog allies have actively campaigned against Sue. The DCCC won't spend a dime on this very winnable race-- holding out to run egregiously corrupt Mike Oliverio (head of West Virginia ALEC) in 2014-- while the corporately-financed Blue Dog PAC runs TV spots in favor of McKinely! Anyway, in his superb new book, Twilite of the Elites, Hayes, in talking about "1 percent pathologies" stumbled on a perfect reason why West Virginia working families should not, not under any circumstances, be voting for David McKinley, a multimillionaire himself.

The it's obviously a far cry from the antebellum South, extreme inequality of the particular that we have, produces its own particular kind of elite pathology: it makes elites less accountable, more prone to corruption and self-dealing, more status-obsessed and less empathetic, more blinkered and removed from informational feedback crucial to effective decision-making. For this reason, extreme inequality produced elites who are less competent and more corrupt than those in a more egalitarian social order would. This is the fundamental paradoxical outcome that several decades of failed meritocratic production has revealed: As Americans society grows more elitist, it produces a worse caliber of elites.

Early this morning we embedded the entire Brave New Films movie Koch Brothers Exposed which should be viewed by everyone who has the vaguest notion of what Hayes means in the above paragraph. Sunday, Charlestown's Gazette-Mail showed that do get it-- even if Steve Israel and the DCCC never will-- in a fulsome endorsement of Sue's campaign.

[W]e think America's middle class and average families will be better served if Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives, ensuring humane values on Capitol Hill. So we hope McKinley's Democratic challenger, party organizer Sue Thorn, prevails in the Nov. 6 balloting.

Although she's a first-time candidate, Thorn is no stranger to public life. She helped run Hopeful City, a coalition of 21 church congregations working to improve life in the Northern Panhandle, and she also was a job-creating agent for the Ohio Valley Industrial and Business Development Corporation.

As a Democratic organizer, she took a plunge for Congress when no major figures challenged McKinley. Thanks to West Virginia's lopsided Democratic registration, she drew 13,000 more votes in last spring's primary than the congressional incumbent did. We hope that margin continues next month.

Wealthy conservatives are investing huge sums in McKinley's campaign, while Thorn is running on a shoestring. It's a David-vs.-Goliath race.

During her campaign, Thorn stresses that many West Virginia politicians pose as "Friends of Coal" and take large donations from mine owners, but remain silent about coal dust disease and explosion danger that kill miners. She says her opponent "may be a friend of coal, but he's no friend of coal miners."

The daughter of a union electrician, she says her goal is "rebuilding the middle class." We hope next month's election gives her a chance to try.

If you'd like to help out in this David vs. Goliath race, you can do it right here on the main Blue America page.