Many people in these communities support Trump because they believe Obama caused the opioid crisis. I, for one, happen to believe that Obama deliberately caused
the so-called "opioid crisis" in Appalachia. Obama's defenders will deny this all day, but based on everything else Obama has said and done, I just don't believe it. He knew damn well what he was doing. It was meant as a government-sponsored "fuck you" to a predominantly white community of honkies / rednecks / hillbillies for which he harbored deep-seated contempt. Perhaps he viewed it as revenge for the popular belief in the Black community that the CIA deliberately circulated crack cocaine to destroy black families. Perhaps it was just old-fashioned racial animus. Either way, I'm sure he did it on purpose, and no one will ever convince me otherwise. Consider
this article from Medium, a far-Left SJW publication:
I realize that this article declares "Obama did not start the opioid crisis." It is Medium after all, and I fully expect them to say that. However, I disagree with this conclusion because it predates January 2018
Senate report which found that
ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion is at least partly to blame for the opioid epidemic. Obamacare's expansion made opioid pills cheaper and more widely available, and "created a powerful incentive for millions to get prescriptions and end up either getting addicted themselves or selling the pills on the black market." That much was obvious to people living in affected regions, and it is almost insulting that it took a Senate committee report to confirm what Obama's defenders had vociferously denied.
On top of that, Obama prioritized killing local industries, particularly the coal industry, under the auspices of promoting "green energy" alternatives and/or natural gas / fracking. I've addressed this in other posts at length, and I won't do it again here. Suffice to say that Obama deliberately and needlessly killed the coal industry. It was not the fault of some spontaneous rise in the natural gas / fracking industry. It was not inevitable. By destroying the livelihoods of the hardworking families of Appalachia, and by prioritizing "pain management" via government subsidized healthcare, Obama created conditions for unemployed breadwinners to become hooked on powerful opiate pain killers, and he flooded the region with an endless supply. As the Medium article above notes, "reduction in opioid supply was desperately needed, and close scrutiny of opioid manufacturers more than warranted," but Obama declined to act.
Obama's defenders will no doubt point out the lack of a memo declaring Obama's intention to "poison those honkies for centuries of slavery and oppression." Frankly, I would be surprised if there were a paper trail proving Obama's intent here. But I just can't bring myself to believe this was an unintentional "perfect storm." Just like Lois Lerner did nothing wrong at the IRS, just like Peter Strzok did nothing wrong at the FBI, just like Eric Holder / Lynch did nothing wrong at the DOJ, just like Hillary did nothing wrong with Benghazi or her e-mails, I cannot believe that all these "perfect storms" happened by accident. And I doubt the millions of people who were affected by the "opioid crisis" hold Obama blameless. At the end of the day, their only recourse is to succeed in spite of Barack Obama's overt attempts to destroy their lives. Oh... and to vote REPUBLICAN henceforth.
So, to summarize, Obama deliberately caused the "opioid crisis" by
- Killing off local industries
- Providing greater access to powerful opioids
- Refusing to take steps to mitigate or limit the spread of opioid addiction
Bringing this around to your post, it's fucked up to ridicule communities that suffer from rampant opioid abuse for supporting Trump when it was Obama's deliberate actions that created the conditions for this "opioid crisis." They know it. I know it. You know it. No wonder they support Trump. No wonder they hate Obama and the Democratic Party. Thankfully, these communities are healing under President Trump.