Saw a story on a
news magazine show the other night. It was one that our pvr
collected, and patiently had waiting for us while we were in Hawaii.
It was aired before the American election.
It showed a small
town in West Virginia, that use to be booming when coal was king, but
is currently only a shadow of what it was. Most of the place was
boarded up, and the remaining population is mostly subsisting on
welfare and food stamps. The best off were perhaps those old enough
to be collecting social security.
They aren't
expecting miracles, but in desperation were throwing their support
overwhelming in favour of Donald Trump.
Over and over,
townspeople said, “what have we got to lose?”
I felt for this
town, and its people, and their desperation. They saw Clinton as
being a continuation of an economy that had left them behind, and a
government doing nothing for their situation. No wonder they were
hoping that Trump, as an unknown quantity, would help them. Surely he
would have to?
They were banking on
hope, thinking that anything new would be better, except it won't.
Why would Trump care
about resuscitating the coal mines?
But surely it won't get worse?
Trump is all about
cutting taxes on the super rich, and selling it as repackaged trickle-down
economics. This is a justification by rich folks for paying less than
their fair share, and has been repeatedly debunked as nonsense.
To pay for Trump's
tax cuts for the super rich, he is going to cut existing programs,
and cut deep.
He and his cronies
want to do away with Social Security, slash welfare programs, and do
away with Medicare and Medicaid, and to gut education. They
are also anti-union, and want to eliminate the minimum wage.
The desperate people
in places like West Virginia have voted for the very person who will
do everything he can to destroy what remains of their communities and
their lives.
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