Coal is bad, Coal miners are not. They just want to make a living like you or me

The problem is that mining towns don't have a diverse economy. These jobs are being replaced by retail which pays next to nothing.

When the survival of your town is dependent on a coal mine and coal is being regulated out of use of course you are going to be pissed off because now your full-time 60k+ a year union job is being replaced with a non-union part-time job making minimum wage.

You can barely support one person on that let alone a family. When wealth is being sucked out of your community chances are you can't afford to send your kids to college which means that your community is just trapped in an endless spiral to the bottom.

If coal is the one thing that you have to save your community then you'll defend your community to the death. The government has been regulating coal out of existence without any plan to replace those jobs with something better than working for Walmart.

These people aren't backward. They love their communities, they love their jobs, and they hate seeing that go away. We should treat these people with the love and respect they deserve.