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Trump promise on coal must be kept

Hold on a moment. He said what?

Since he won on Nov. 8, President-elect Donald Trump has been backpedaling on any number of matters. He doesn’t want Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted for her crimes while secretary of state, he said a few days ago. Some of the people he referred to as lower than dirt are good folks who may serve in his administration, he has added.

Maybe we’ll build a fence, not a wall.

And just a few days ago, let’s “keep an open mind” about the Paris climate accords.

If you haven’t bought the champagne yet, fellow West Virginians, you may want to wait a few days.

Here in the Mountain State and in quite a few other places, Trump sealed the pre-election deal by pledging to restore the jobs of miners who have lost them because of President Barack Obama’s war on coal and affordable electricity. Hillary Clinton’s take on that was that she would put lots more miners out of work, you may recall.

Trump was believable in part because he had said he’d tear up the Paris pact. And why not? It was negotiated and approved by the White House. Members of Congress need not apply to approve it on behalf of the American people.

Further, Trump said the whole climate change issue was based on bad science.

Now, he says there may be something to it, after all.

It is the rule rather than the exception that politicians say one thing on the campaign trail and often do another after being elected. But that is one of the reasons Trump won.

Many voters are sick and tired of politics and politicians as they have known them. They liked Trump because he was so irreverent. They voted for him because he called out the political establishment, both Republican and Democrat, for making promises that were not meant to be kept.

They loved him — and, in many cases, it was hero worship — because he was not politically correct.

And now?

Just a few days ago, Trump called West Virginia Gov.-elect Jim Justice to reinforce his pledge about helping the miners. Good.

It is about more than coal miners, of course. It is about a rational energy policy including coal, oil, natural gas and alternatives such as solar and wind power.

Unless some reason is returned to energy policy, states such as West Virginia are in deep, deep trouble. And so are tens of millions of other Americans who rely on cheap electricity and fossil fuels in other ways.

So Trump’s pledge has deep ramifications. Going back on it would, too.

Trump’s victory was no less than a political revolution. It was rural and small-town Americans tired of being bossed around by cities. It was people of both faith and reason sick of being slammed as somehow morally deficient because we believe in things like the sanctity of life, individual liberties and the Second Amendment.

It was people who understand two plus two will never equal five, no matter what people like Obama and Clinton tell us.

It was people who know they’d better be candid when filling out job applications, for fear they’ll be fired when their lies are discovered.

Here’s the thing: It is possible to keep that promise to the coal miners and do something about climate change at the same time. Clean coal technology could do it.

But that promise has to be kept. So do many others Trump has made during the past 12 months.

The people who voted for Trump, 60 million or so of them, did so because they had reached their limit with politics as usual. But, many decided, they would trust “the system” one more time. They would take one more chance that the old claim about their votes counting was more than hogwash. They would go with someone who would drain the swamp.

How do you suppose those people would react if they learned they had been lied to again?

Mike Myer can be reached at mmyer@theintelligencer.net.

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