Coal Man

“What a completely wild idea, that leadership -- absent any chest pounding -- could also include a thoughtful discussion of humility and not be seen as somehow weak or trivial.” Alexis Grenell, The Nation

Well, as anticipated, Joe Manchin killed Joe Biden’s Build Back Better program. Manchin went to great pains to portray himself as having wrestled his conscience and his core political beliefs as far as he could, before telling Biden it was no go. Manchin played his role very well, he had a big hand in whittling BBB down, throwing objections around like daggers, until the bill’s ambitions were just a fraction of what was initially proposed. Manchin carried water for energy extractors and wealthy donors, as he always does. Manchin is firm in his corruption. He voted against a bill that could have provided real help to some of the neediest citizens in his own state. He stood with his backers. And then, at the end of the calendar year, Manchin lowers the boom. Happy Christmas, Biden. I’m still a coal man! 

Manchin is also a wealthy man, owns a yacht and a very fancy automobile, has a daughter who hit gold in the pharmaceutical industry, and family ties to the coal industry, which should have died a needed death thirty or forty years ago. (That death might have been phased in over the course of a generation to give those dependent on coal for their daily bread time to transition to something else. No, not in America. It has never worked that way. We live and die by profit! Someone’s profit.) Manchin’s not even a Democrat, but the Dems couldn’t afford to push him too hard lest he jump ship and Mitch McConnell resume his job as Majority Leader. That made it much easier for Manchin to play his spoiler role. Bravo Mr. Coal Mine, you just prevented your “constituents” from having to cough up more in taxes to pay for all those goodies to all those undeserving, lazy people. You did it! Your prize will no doubt be great. May I suggest a second yacht or a fleet of gleaming black Tesla’s equipped with bullet-proof glass. 

I watch this faux drama play out, try not to get cynical and angry, fail, as usual, and come back for more. The Dems are not as futile as they appear, their task on even minor issues is hard because of the numbers, and the filibuster, and FOX News with its 24/7 disinformation campaign. And Zuckerberg over at Facebook. The injustices we see almost every day, the slow pace of reform attempts, the drowning of damn near everything in money. It’s fucking nuts, and enormously frustrating. We have two major parties, itself an impediment to doing anything to meet the legitimate, universal needs of its citizens, and one of them attempted to overturn an election that their standard bearer, their great king, their icon -- Donald J. Trump -- lost. By a wide margin in both popular votes and the Electoral College. The coup was a multi-pronged and coordinated effort, no question about it. Despite the obstacles in its path, the January 6 House Committee has done a good job of amassing evidence that will prove what most people assume: that Trump, with the help of others, tried to steal the election. He told us he would a year in advance, but at that point people were numb, depleted by Covid and the tidal wave of lies Trump spewed every day he was in office. Trump told us, not in these exact words, but with the same intent: If I win, it was fair; if I lose, it was rigged. 

I think the one thing Donald Trump fears more than anything else is the humiliation of being outed as who and what he is: A business disaster. A conman. A fraud and a coward. Daddy Trump warped Donald, twisted his psyche like a pretzel, put him on a path to being loutish, cruel, corrupt, lazy, mean-spirited, petty, vain, spoiled and hopelessly narcissistic.  Trump is the greatest con man in American history, no doubt about it. Bernie Madoff conned hundreds, maybe thousands of people into giving him money, Trump conned almost half the citizens of this insane country,  and damn near succeeded in taking it over. All while making the shit up as he went along.