The election wasn't a referendum on the American Jobs Act or the Miners Protection Act. It was between Clinton and Trump. Clinton's case was that Trump shouldn't be president because he called a Hispanic lady fat. Maybe she should have campaigned more on jobs and health care for miners.
Post hoc.
Maybe that was your perception at the time, but it wasn't mine. She campaigned on 'stronger together' which is an economic message of "America does best when everyone does well."
My perception of Trump's message was one of either "Because I'm so uniquely great I, and I alone, can fix your problems all by myself" which only a moron can believe or "You white working class people, unlike all other disaffected people, you're not to blame for your economic problems, but these scapegoats: Chinese workers, illegal aliens... are." which only a genuinely deplorable person can support.
I get your point. These hardworking people are suffering... My point is you can't promise all things to all people and that those who do are lying. And that these people, many of whom frequently said "at least Trump tells it like it is" were really saying "he tells me what I want to hear, and even though, deep down, I know it's probably nonsense, I'm going to vote for it anyway."
And that was even quite a number of them recognized that he was completely unfit to be President and was almost certainly only running to further his own interests.
So, it was hardly a case of as bad as Trump is, I think Hillary Clinton will be even worse, it was a case of "Donald Trump is as bad as a person can be, but I'll still vote for him."
"Stronger Together" was a horsecrap slogan. Why? Because folks saw through it.
Someone who calls 25% of the population "deplorables" doesn't really believer AMERICA is "Stronger Together". What she was saying is that the DEMOCRATIC PARTY is "Stronger Together" when Clintonistas and those Feeling the Bern stand together against the Trumpian Hordes. That's the real meaning of that slogan, and I believe folks figured it out and were not impressed.
