Traveling from Maine recently to visit family in the Allegheny Valley, I had the misfortune of driving Route 28 from Brookville to Freeport, a sad corridor of poverty and decay. And nothing signifies the degree of that economic and intellectual deterioration more than the ridiculous Trump signs and flags that still line the winding roadway, followed by more in Natrona Heights, Brackenridge and Tarentum, where I grew up.
With irony too thick even for Vonnegut, too many of the sad survivors of what is left of this section of the Allegheny Valley have pledged loyalty to an indulged, immoral punchline become president, who hides tax cuts for his fat-cat cronies behind the smorgasbord of lies, bigotry and hate that he serves up to them, his obsequious, too frequently dirt-poor cult followers.
It is beyond sad to witness this once proud, working-class, striving, unionized and Democratic area disintegrate into a hotbed of knownothingness, paranoia and shameful sycophancy, with impoverished people railing against socialism and in thrall to a clownish blowhard.
Here is my suggestion to Valley Trumpists: Take your checks and benefits from the covid relief bill crafted by President Biden and the Democratic Party, something that your beloved Republican Party unanimously voted against, and really stick it to the libs — like you try to do with those pathetic Trump signs you display like a giant middle finger — and send them back.
Al Scovern
Belfast, Maine