It’s All About Trump’s Contempt
There is, however, a unifying theme — Donald Trump’s contempt for the voters who put him in office.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Well, he hasn’t done that, at least so far. He is, however, betting that he can break every promise he made to the working-class voters who put him over the top, and still keep their support. Can he win that bet?
.. remember his claims that he would pay off the national debt?
.. 29 percent of the population is on Medicaid, almost 19 percent on food stamps.
.. West Virginians .. more than 4 percent of the population, the highest share in the nation, receives Social Security disability payments, partly because of the legacy of unhealthy working conditions, partly because a high fraction of the population consists of people who suffer from chronic diseases, like diabetics
.. they supported Trump because he promised — falsely, of course — that he could bring back the well-paying coal-mining jobs of yore.
.. Maybe he would take benefits away from Those People, but he would protect the programs white working-class voters
.. it would be apocalyptic: Hundreds of thousands would lose health insurance; medical debt and untreated conditions would surge; and there would be an explosion in extreme poverty, including a lot of outright hunger.
.. Coal isn’t coming back; these days, West Virginia’s biggest source of employment is health care and social assistance. How many of those jobs would survive savage cuts in Medicaid and disability benefits?
.. people who voted for Donald Trump were the victims of an epic scam by a man who has built his life around scamming.