During the 2016 campaign and continuing to the present, sociopathic liar and con man Donald "Rump" Trump promised that he'd bring back the coal industry, despite years of decline prompted by economic realities. Coal consumption is at a low point not seen since the late 1970s, and more coal-fired plants have shuttered in the past two years than in President Obama's entire first term. Not only that, but coal's decline has been accelerating under Rump at a greater rate.
While many of his cult supporters in "coal country" will stick with him even after he gives them the proverbial (coal) shaft, some are beginning to see the con. CNN ran a story about the phenomenon:
Rump ran up big majorities among blue collar communities in coal states like Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia in 2016, not all of it, of course, due to his promises about the coal industry. But like his medieval wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for, Rump's lies to "coal country" were simply a means to an end. Now that his promises have proven to be frauds, will more disallusioned Trumpers notice? We're not hopeful, but time will tell.
3 comments:
As a niece and granddaughter of coal miners, I can tell you they're a proud bunch. Both my maternal grandfather and uncle died from Black Lung. My uncle also lost a thumb in a mining accident. But they'd defend coal mining to the bitter end. It put food on the table and a roof over their heads and they would never have walked away from it.
But I have a younger uncle who did walk away several years ago. He hadn't worked underground much; he had moved up to management, but he didn't like the way the owners ran the mines and he decided to get out. He not only retired from the mining business, he and his wife left the state of West Virginia entirely to live in Ohio.
Jobs are gone. The cities like Beckley are turning into ghost towns. No jobs, no commerce, no education. Big trouble with opiods and drinking. The recent news story about the four people who were lost in an abandoned mine happened right where my uncle and aunt used to live. The people were scrounging the mine to find copper to sell. The people in those mountains are desperate.
So I don't know that they'll ever acknowledge that Trump lied to them. More than likely they'll keep blaming Obama. They used to post billboards along the highways there decrying Obama for killing the mines with regulations. What they'll probably do is credit Trump with smacking down the regulations, boosting the big mine owners, and claiming that at least Trump tried to help them.
And they'll continue to see mines close down, or they'll see more friends die from lung cancer or accidents.
donnah -- Thanks for sharing your family story. It's heart wrenching to see good people struggle in that way. The money that put up those billboards you speak of is part of the money that's been used for years to lie to working families about who is on their side and who isn't.
I was just going to say that Trump will tell the coal towns that the Democrats kept him from saving all the jobs, which they'll believe, but donnah already said it better.
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