West Virginia, Trumpland (After John Denver) Poem by Dr Ian Inkster

Written today on 10th of December 2016 this little song is inspired by Donald Trump and his erstwhile promise, much bandied during the election, to restore the coal mining industry of West Virginia on the one hand, and the news now that there seems no progress to be made in that direction, although he has appointed to the decision-making level within his core group a key man who seems to be no friend of the environment. I have argued that the quandary that Trump faces is in fact universal at this stage of capitalist development - manufacturing production and its employment and productive capacities now lie up against a ceiling of environmental distress. Whether the latter is an unproblematic 'fact' may not be the central issue, the point being that most people now think that such activities as coal-mining must be subject to choices that fully take account of environmental impacts as estimated.

This universal tension is normally disguised in the discourse of the political centre, which is mostly concerned with dampening any moral or natural panic as it sets out on technological and political schemes of amelioration. With a maverick rhetorician such as Trump the seams in the system are put under real strain.

So the song juxtaposes John Denver's famous nostalgic song on West Virginia (Country Roads) with Trump's promises to rescue a seemingly doomed industry.

I might note that the situation is pretty complex. Fracking and gas, plus oil and energy savings do seems to be making the WV industry unlikely as a real competitor at the global level, so the sector would need not only huge public aid to initiate any re-start but lots of subsidy into the future. Socially its very serious. The coal industry in the state is very varied, ranging from long-walling to mining on mountain sides in a tradition that goes back to Boone County in the 1740s. Some 30,000 were employed directly in the mining sector until recently. The underworld of the Appalachian mines supported a very healthy surface world for a long time. Donald Trump exploited the situation once Hilary Clinton had made it clear that she had only distain for the sector, and he promised that he would 'get these men back to work'. It's an important political test as the region was the leading one supporting Trump's election.
For the poem I have paralleled and reflected the much more lyrical Denver original, and melodically aped his chord structure with a little departure only.

Ian Inkster.2016