A few years ago some friends and I took our tailgate grill to a rally in Fairmont, WV. We cooked 1000 hot dogs and gave a monetary contribution to start Joe Manchin’s campaign for governor of West Virginia. His daughter worked with us, and he was a friend of our company’s president. We were family, and we felt that he knew the problems of both the working man and the business owner. Joe proceeded to become governor and did a decent job with a Democratic Party machine that was many years in the making.
After, Governor Joe decided to run for the United States Senate and we continued to support him in his efforts with the expectation that he would continue to work for the people of West Virginia. He was elected, and I remember his first vote on a substantial matter. I do not remember the issue but Joe voted for Harry Reid instead of for West Virginia. He had a new constituency. West Virginia had voted against President Obama and expected our senators to follow our lead. Harry told him how to vote and he followed orders.
West Virginia voted for President Trump with a large majority and again wanted the new president’s agenda enacted. We wanted the repeal of Obamacare as it had devastated our lower earning public. Those who had been able to receive care through our free clinics were no longer eligible since they could get subsidized insurance. The problem was that, even with the subsidy, they still could not afford the insurance and those that did buy it could not go to the doctor because of the large deductibles. Joe voted against the repeal and left many with little or no health care choices.
Along comes the income tax reform, which gave hope to many West Virginians that it could spur new small business and keep those businesses in the state to stay here. We might be able to create new jobs to put the idled coal miners back to work and give a boost to a dwindling economy. Joe voted for Nancy and Chuck instead of West Virginia. He forgot about the many that elected him and had expectations that he would support their wishes. The party line was more important. His own daughter had moved a great American company that was based in West Virginia to the Netherlands, and he had a chance to help stop the movement of other companies leaving. Joe was not family anymore. Joe was another political hack who lived in Washington, DC, and forgot about where he came from and whom he represented.
Well, it will be soon that Joe will start running for another term in the Senate. I would suggest that he retire and move to New York next to Chuckie Schumer. I hear he has a place on Elm Street.
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