What Drove a West Virginia Democrat to Storm the Capitol on January 6? – The Intercept

The change has happened amid what Sam Workman, director of the Rockefeller Institute of Policy Research and Public Affairs at West Virginia University, describes as the nationalization of politics in West Virginia. In places where corporations buy up large portions of media share, its much easier for national party politics to influence state and local politics, Workman said. In the old days, the tether for the Democratic Party, or the left, was labor unions. But with the capitulation of labor, what you get is that these national media narratives can now be really influential in state and local politics because there is no countervailing power or force to check them that sews together societal elements in the way that labor used to.

Those national narratives can now activate what were always latent identities, whether its being pro-life or pro-gun, Workman said. You lose control of the behaviors driven by the salient identities, that you have made salient. You create something as a national party, as a national narrative, as a national media, that you can no longer control.

Those dynamics help explain why Barber ended up at the Capitol on January 6, Workman said.

Barbers transformation didnt happen overnight, but it did happen quickly. When local activists got Barber to support their campaign to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance in 2017, a right-wing group stepped in to stop them. The Family Policy Council of West Virginia, a local branch of the national Family Research Council, actively fought similar ordinances that were proposed in more than a dozen cities in the state.

With the FPCs intervention, the local debate over the ordinance became increasingly contentious. Shortly before the city council vote, it was reported that Barber was convicted of a felony. So now Ive got all these folks coming at me, talking about, Oh, recall! We didnt know you were a felon. Yeah, yeah, you can vote for that if you want, Barber recounted in an interview. He eventually voted against the ordinance he had originally sponsored, and it failed 6-3.

I just took the politicians road, Barber said. I went with what I thought was the best play.

That vote cost Barber his progressive allies, who began to notice a change in his behavior. Hes not talking to constituents and dealing with their needs, said Eric Engle, chair of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, a climate advocacy group. Hes not addressing anything locally in his district thats of any benefit to his constituents. Its all culture wars at this point. In 2020, Barber lost his seat to Democrat Wendy Tuck by just under 80 votes.

Looking back, Barber blames the people who helped him get elected for his turn to Trumpism.The more the hard left hated me, the more I searched out the warm embrace and hug of conservatism, Barber said. The more you guys were against me, the more they supported me. And the more hardcore Trump-like I was, the more positive feedback I got.

Film by Chris Jones and P. Nick Curran, article by Akela Lacy.

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What Drove a West Virginia Democrat to Storm the Capitol on January 6? - The Intercept