We need to focus on helping working families. What we don't need, according to Lissa, is a government that is primarily focused on things like handing our property rights to corporations, or charging families for the damage corporations are doing to our roads. She says we also don't need government officials who are so ashamed by their corporate campaign donations that they regard hearing them listed out as a personal attack.
"Yeah, we need a political revolution in this state," Lissa says, "and I believe West Virginians can take the lead, just like West Virginia teachers took the lead with their strike, and inspired so many across the country to follow in their footsteps."
That's what I thought I knew about Auburn, WV, from my research: there would be infrastructure issues. So I had expectations of what I'd probably hear. But sometimes your expectations are just WRONG.
It helps corporations to have their bought political mouthpieces incite regular folks to blame the other party, whichever "other" party that might be. That's because the constant bitter fighting keeps people from being able to recognize and process who's really calling the shots. The distraction allows more and more of our money to be funneled to already-wealthy corporate execs.
China would prefer the U.S. to be less competitive in the future, to fall behind in creating renewable energy infrastructure, to have to buy our solar panels from THEM, while our politicians fall all over themselves to move us backward rather than ahead.
Ritchie isn't the only county that sees no funds from the bond. The vast majority of rural counties will get no fixes, see no jobs, have no improvement in infrastructure. But here in Ritchie, perhaps we're just more painfully aware of it...
Antero dedicated more than a quarter of a billion building the dump near our drinking water intake. And now they want to argue that their financial interests outweigh the interests of public health and welfare: "Our profit is more important than your lives."
I have a proposal for you, Dirty Joe. Are you willing to take the reasonable step of fighting for #MedicareForAll? Supporting the progressive WV State Democratic Platform? Fighting eminent domain for private gain...?
