A motley association of eco-warriors, hippies, associated lefties and the 'climate change' industry will be breaking out the organic, alcohol free champagne today after their leader fulfilled his promise to kill off the coal industry. Without putting anything in place to mitigate the effects of their actions, Obama together with the vested interests that support him have put their ideology before the wellbeing of the people.
As anyone who follows the behavior of politicians will know, this latest action by Obama has got little to do with cooling the planet and everything to do with controlling the people. As important as that debate is, for the purpose of this article it is peripheral to the one about tribal, party based voting habits and will be dealt with separately.
Electors are obviously unaware that casting ones vote for a particular political party on the basis of family tradition degrades democracy, disenfranchises the voter and emboldens the politicians to indulge in self serving behaviors that are detrimental to the well being of both community and country.
Safe in the knowledge that they will never be voted out of office, the political class in 'safe' constituencies routinely ignore the wishes of the people and follow their own ideological agenda regardless of any detrimental effects and often enriching themselves in the process.
The issue of blind tribal loyalties and the part it plays in the downfall of communities is common to both Great Britain and the USA.
As a native of the South Wales coal field I witnessed first hand the consequences of the closure of the British coal industry and subsequent effect on the traditionally close knit communities. The blame for this lies entirely with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), its two politically motivated leaders, Arthur Scargill and Mick McGahey together with their supporters and sympathetic political activists, including the Labour Party.
The reasons for the demise of the British coal industry can be read here.
It was obvious from his background and his initial utterances that Senator Obama was the most ideologically driven presidential candidate in history, so when he told the American people that his energy plan would mean "that energy bills would necessarily sky rocket", they should have sat up and taken notice.
His next statement was an open declaration of war against the coal industry, the miners and their communities: "if somebody wants to build a coal fired power plant they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them".
With a clear, unequivocal declaration of that nature one would think that the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and its leadership would beat to quarters and mobilise the membership either to lobby against Obama's proposals or to back the other candidate.
Ignoring the threat to the livelihoods of the coal miners or the well being of their families, the UMWA leadership endorsed candidate Obama and in an act of blind obedience, or utter stupidity, the membership complied.
By this mindless action the mining communities were party to their own downfall and therefore deserve no sympathy; they brought it on themselves.
In mitigation it can be said that Obama did promise that millions of 'green' jobs will be created as the energy sector moved to renewables together with millions more 'shovel ready' jobs as part of the stimulus package. The mining communities should have known that these were promises made during an election campaign and shouldn't be taken as truth.
These jobs didn't materialise and adding insult to injury, one 'green' energy company, the infamous Solyndra, made off with billions of taxpayer money before declaring bankruptcy.
As a further kick in the teeth for the coal mining industry Obama chooses to appease the green lobby instead of mitigating the disaster facing the coal mining communities. He is refusing to endorse the Keystone pipeline project with the consequent loss of well paid jobs.
He is also refusing to drill for oil on federal lands or to fully embrace fracking for natural gas which would go someway to replacing the lost coalfield jobs and help move America towards energy independence.
With this record of antagonism toward the mining communities one would have thought that the UMWA leadership would endorse anyone but Obama for a second term but in an act of supreme cowardice and without a care for the welfare of the membership they held off their recommendation until late in the campaign before advising an abstention.
This was a cynical manipulation of the traditional loyalty of coal miners with the intention of not being seen to be endorsing the anti-coal Obama while at the same time preventing the membership from effectively campaigning for the other candidate.
It is worth noting the attitude of UMWA leader, Mike Caputo who like his British counterparts, Scargill and McGahey, puts his own political loyalties above that of the people he is sworn to represent.
Caputo combines his leadership of the UMWA with being a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. This dual representation brings into question his loyalties should there be a conflict of interest between his political party and his membership.
This question was answered during the second term election where he endorsed Obama knowing full well his malign intentions toward the UMWA membership. By leaving it late into the campaign before recommending an abstention he effectively prevented any opposition to Obama being organised from within the coal mining communities.
Caputo's cynical manipulation of his members can be highlighted by his statement after he recommended an abstention:
"I am a hardcore Democrat, I intend to vote for Obama. I am loyal to my party".
Like his British counterparts, Messrs. Scargill and McGahey, Mike Caputo is loyal to his party, not to the membership or the communities that have put their faith in him to look after their interests.
It would appear that the idea that trade unions are there to look after the interests of their members and their families doesn't apply the coal industry in either the USA or Great Britain.
I would suggest that the coal mining communities learn from this treachery and stop their tribal voting habits. In West Virginia and elsewhere they should treat Mr. Caputo with the same contempt with which he treats them and boot him out at the earliest possible opportunity from both the Legislature and the UMWA.
Update:
It would appear that I am not the only one who thinks they are stupid. See here.
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