Miner Queries | Cherie Miner

The last two weeks we’ve had a number of big fires in the news: the wildfire raging through Appalachia and the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, Calif. It now seems both fires started with plenty of human help – whether deliberate or inadvertent.
But the biggest fire may engulf the entire country. I’m talking about the one ignited by the election. I know many people thought they were voting for change and against the “establishment” with a Trump vote.
However, let’s look at this from a slightly different perspective. I view much of human history as a struggle for power between the “Haves” and “Have-nots,” and I, like 99 percent Americans, am not a Have. So in our binary American system, I evaluate political parties based on where the Haves put their money.
Without a doubt, the Republican Party wins in the race for dollars from corporate and wealthy interests. It’s a trend that has continued for 40-plus years.
So even though the Democrats began to pursue similar funding during the 1990s, they still lag. And though Clinton was tarred as the “establishment” candidate, it is Trump’s ties to America’s wealthy elite that will determine the course of his administration. Remember Trump was born into wealth.
With a Trump vote, wait for it ... you voted with the Haves. A Trump vote was a vote for more of the same. You have been conned, or if you prefer, Trumped. The evidence of this comes daily with Trump’s list of actions and appointees.
As Ben Adler writes at The Guardian: “Since winning the presidency, Trump has asked British politician Nigel Farage to help stop a wind farm from going up near his Scottish golf course and, allegedly, asked Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, for swifter building permit approval for an office building. (Trump and Macri denied that Trump mentioned his project, but three days after their conversation, Trump’s building got its permits.) Trump supports building the Dakota Access pipeline – and he owns stock in the project’s parent company.”
Robert Borosage at The Nation calls Trump’s new positions a political bait-and-switch. He credits Trump with masterful use of marketing to paint himself as a populist with maneuvers like the Carrier deal in Indiana. However, he writes: “The switch comes in Washington, with what David Axelrod dubbed a ‘Monster’s Ball’ of Wall Street and right-wing ideologues in the cabinet. Republican majorities in Congress will work to further rig the economy for the wealthy few.”
Borosage cites examples among Trump’s appointments including Goldman Sachs alum Steve Mnuchin, whose plans include: “to lower corporate taxes to 15 percent, and give the companies that evaded taxes by stashing the money abroad a massive tax break.”
Additionally, Trump’s commerce secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, has downgraded Trump’s promise to impose tariffs on companies outsourcing jobs. He says now it will be one of the last things to do.
The list goes on with a Health & Human Services secretary who hates the Affordable Care Act, an education secretary who’s never worked a day in education, an Environmental Protection Agency chief who denies climate change, numerous former generals now lobbying for defense contractors, and a completely inexperienced head of Housing & Urban development.
This barely scratches the surface. We’ve set our American house on fire, and we are all going to get burned.

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.