For years, West Virginia’s political class said that each progressive
movement among Democrats came “too soon,” and they’ve gotten their way.
But after another failed administration, it’s time to worry that the
movement could be too late.
West Virginia’s peril has no precedent. Our population has more older
folks, and more existing lung disease than any state in the union.
Asbestosis, black lung, pollution, and smoking have taken their toll and
in the best of times, older West Virginians need extra time to catch
their breath.
These are not the best of times. The wolf is inside the door in the form
of a deadly virus that spreads quietly and kills at unprecedented
rates, but especially the old and those with compromised lungs. Strong
action to control its spread was needed weeks ago.
The Republicans who control Charleston left town having done nothing.
The billionaire GOP governor called on people to go ahead and go out to
Bob Evans just a few days ago, against all sound public health advice.
Testing so far has been basically zero — our captain was asleep at the
wheel at best, consciously indifferent at worst.
I don’t much blame right-wing politicians anymore for what they do. They
give fair warning year after year that rah-rah “West Virginia First”
and “West Virginia Strong” sloganeering and corporate tax cuts will be
their solution for every problem. They only barely pretend to care about
the burdens ordinary families bear, and they certainly won’t help.
But what about our Democrats? What about the Party that is supposed to
stand up for the working man and woman and their families? Time and
again, they shot down the progressive plan — the tax credit for hard
work, the raise in the minimum wage, the protection for equal rights.
“Too expensive!” “What will the Chamber of Commerce say?” “What about my
reelection?”
Four years ago, the grand poo-bah of West Virginia Democrats, Joe
Manchin, was so worried about progressive candidates for governor that
he endorsed the Republican — and helped deliver Jim Justice the
governorship. While coronavirus took hold in West Virginia, big Jim was
running his casinos, tending to his coal business, and playing at his
hobbies. Jim has taken great care of Jim and put West Virginia in
terrible danger.
How will we tell West Virginia’s little children that when the virus
knocked on our state’s door, calling for their grandparents, that the
governor was coaching basketball games and insulting the young girls on
the other teams? How will we explain that big Jim was bragging about
being friends with the President, while that same President said West
Virginia wouldn’t need much help? Who can explain to them that we let
hospitals close, one after another, just when we needed them most?
We don’t know the full price we are going to pay for having a big-mouth,
low-effort, braggadocios buffoon as our governor in a time of true
crisis. We just know it will be more than any of us can bear. We know it
will be so much worse than it needed to be. We know already that the
entire state has been shut down because the leadership could not be
bothered to prepare.
The progressive movement in West Virginia today has a plan for
coronavirus. Thousands of West Virginians literally cannot wait for it
to be implemented. But when you have a rich person who thought it would
be fun to get famous too running the state, you end up long on talk and
short on plans and implementation.
The state needs to be mobilized to take every action possible to save
everyone we can possibly save. Instead we get a quickie press-conference
and the politicians all went home. We cannot afford any more of GOP
indifference and greed. We cannot afford any more of the establishment
Democrats’ lassitude and indolence.
As this article went to press, we learned that Republican US Senators
like Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler actually traded out of stocks they
owned when their committees received advance warning of what the country
faced. They then went out to the cameras and told ordinary Americans
everything will be fine. Government by the rich, of the rich and for the
rich has got to end now.
West Virginia can’t wait for strong coordinated action in every county.
It can’t wait for someone who is prepared to do the work with the people
who suffer the most uppermost in mind. It cannot wait for Stephen
Smith. People are talking about moving elections back. West Virginia
needs to move its up, before it’s too late. West Virginia needs an
uprising.
Christopher J. Regan is an attorney with Bordas & Bordas, PLLC, in
Wheeling and the former-Vice Chair of the West Virginia Democratic
Party.