Miner Queries | Cherie Miner

Thanksgiving morning, our house was full of family, a common thing for this holiday. Curt and I were sleeping in the basement to accommodate guests and our old, and now blind, dog’s midnight bathroom trips.
But Clifford, an Airedale Terrier, refused to be led down the steps to our temporary sleeping quarters after his trip outside. So, Curt left him beside the door. Then he and I laid in bed listening to Clifford tread circles on the upstairs landing. He was determined to go back to his usual spot in the living room, despite the closed door. No matter how many times he bumped his head against it, he kept trying to find a way through.
As we lay listening to him, I thought, “He’s just like so many voters in this last election.”
I was thinking about an Alternet article titled: “An Insider’s View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America.”
Born and raised in rural America, the author moved on after getting an education, but maintains ties with family here. The article articulated why, despite continued economic pummeling by Republican policies, rural Americans refuse to vote for their own economic interests.
The author concludes: “What I understand is that rural, Christian, white Americans are entrenched in fundamentalist belief systems; don’t trust people outside their tribe; have been force-fed a diet of misinformation and lies for decades; are unwilling to understand their own situations; and truly believe whites are superior to all races.”
Of course there’s much more in the article, which includes a laundry list of truths that rural, Christian, white Americans don’t want to accept. And this list handily predicts all the ways they will get hammered by the Trump Administration.
In fact, as Josh Bivens points out on the Economics Policy Institute’s Nov. 23 Working Economics Blog, there’s already a big gap between Trump’s promises and the policies now being unveiled.
Bivens writes: “During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised that he would take the side of American workers against economic elites when evaluating policy. Yet, the policy proposals he put forth during the campaign had nothing in them that would actually help working- and middle-class Americans. Now that more plans and potential cabinet appointments are coming into focus, it looks worse than many of us thought even before the election.”
Bivens’ list of lumps includes:
Taxes: Trump’s plan gives the top 1 percent most of the benefits of tax cuts, while the bottom 60 percent will see only 10 percent of the gains. Additionally, corporations will see a tax cut. And if House Speaker Paul Ryan has his way, the top 1 percent will get a bigger benefit.
Wall Street: Trump appears ready to turn all financial regulation over to the guys who caused the 2007 crash.
Medicare and Medicaid: While Trump promised to protect these programs, deep Red America voted to give Republicans control of Congress, and Congress is the body that controls them. Paul Ryan has been working for years to cut Medicaid and privatize Medicare.
Overall economy: Like Bush, Trump is inheriting a relatively stable economy. So the austerity gloves have come off with plans for tax cuts and infrastructure spending. However, neither these cuts, nor the infrastructure plans released by Trump’s team are designed to help average Americans. Instead they include more giveaways to the 1 percent.
Is this the change you voted for?

Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. In a former life, she was a corporate writer and public relations professional. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.