Joe Biden Telling Miners to "Learn to Code" Will Come Back to Haunt Him

Earlier this week, while addressing a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, Joe Biden had some advice for coal miners - learn to code:


Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well... Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!


The remark was followed by dead silence and with it his chances to defeat Donald Trump.


Nothing is more insulting than a politician implying that his audience his stupid and that all a coal miner need to do is get training and all their problems will be solved despite the dubious results of most federal job training programs. Joe Biden has said a lot of stupid things over the years, but this might be the most foolish. It's the sort of thing that people remember when going to the ballot box. It's the kind of thing which cost Hillary Clinton Pennsylvania when she infamously said "we're gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."


This could cost Joe Biden a lot more than Pennsylvania. There are miners in New Hampshire and Hillary won the state by 0.4% in 2016. Biden would be wise not to take New Hampshire for granted much less for granite.


On a personal note, my maternal grandfather was a coal miner in the Crowsnest Pass in Alberta for 43 years starting at the age of 15. It was dangerous work, but it was dignified work. My grandfather got the job in 1930 when the Great Depression was in its infancy. As such he was lot more fortunate than most. He didn't expect the world to owe him a living, but I can't imagine he would have tolerated a politician calling his intelligence and dedication into question.


The Democratic Party, a political entity which proclaims to speak for working class people, does itself no favors when it's likely presidential standard bearer speaks of the working class with such contempt and ridicule instead of compassion and respect. Biden words to coal miners in America will come back to haunt him and Donald Trump will see to it that it does even if he doesn't give a damn about coal miners than he does about anyone else who works for him.