In the UK, coal miners are left-wing icons: a band of working class brothers martyred on the cross of uncaring capitalism during the 1980’s. In America in 2017, they are the vanguard of the Trump right-wing counterrevolution, to the point that Trump is willing to isolate the country diplomatically, endanger the health of its citizens, and forfeit the more numerous jobs of less visible people working in clean industry to protect their interests.
How can this be? How can we account for such a vast difference?
There are two explanations:
- Thatcher wasn’t concerned about the environment; her motivations were political and financial. As a result, the battle with the miners looked like class warfare. In 2017 America, the miners have already lost the war to market forces, but the GOP has convinced them that their real enemy is environmental regulations, not the market or their bosses.
- Miners tend to be cultural conservatives in this country. The culture war is a far less prominent factor in politics in the UK than it is here.