Jill Lawrence

USA TODAY

Poor, poor pitiful flyover country. Never getting the attention or respect or economic consideration it deserves. Never having a president to call its own.

Very unfair!

So fitting that the coastal elites are finally getting a taste of our own medicine, right?

I was going to write a funny piece about the high price of Prius repair and how even yoga and kale smoothies can’t soothe our nerves at this point. But I don’t have a Prius and I hate yoga and kale. Also, this is no joke.

Because if you want to look at who can’t get any respect, there's a good case that it's those of us who happen to live in cities and on coasts. In other words, blue America.

You want to talk about unfair?

Democrats won the popular vote in six of the past seven national elections, but got only two presidents out of it instead of four. Al Gore won it by 541,000 in 2000. As of Sunday, Hillary Clinton was more than 700,000 votes ahead of Donald Trump and by some estimates headed toward close to a 2-million-vote “loss.”

“Not real interested in California's 9 million voters deciding every president,” wrote a Twitter user named plarkin88. Understandable — but they are people too. Why shouldn’t their votes count as much as those in relatively sparsely populated red states? I know, this is the system we have. But is it fair?

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And while we’re on the subject, I’m not real interested in Republicans appointing every Supreme Court justice for eternity. Democrats have held the presidency for 20 years since 1977 but haven’t had a high court majority since 1971. When they finally got the chance in February after Justice Antonin Scalia died, Senate Republicans decided they would wait a year, ignore President Obama’s nominee, and let the next president decide. Fair? Not in my book.

As for having a say, Republicans are now completely in charge — governors and legislatures — in 24 states, up from 20 before the election. They have partial control in many more. These states are in flyover country, in the South, even in New England. If that’s not getting your voice heard, what is?

I get that the federal government has overridden some conservative social moves in some states. There is room for debate on that, but it is the job of the president, Congress and federal courts to make sure all Americans have an equal opportunity to vote and equal protection under the law. That means blocking restrictive laws and making sure same-sex couples can get their marriage licenses. We are a diverse society becoming ever more diverse. That’s a demographic fact, and no president can stop the tide.

It’s also a fact that the economy has greatly improved on Obama’s watch, but obviously there are areas that are left behind. Rust Belt voters in particular placed their bets on Trump. This is ironic given that Obama saved their auto industry while most Republicans opposed the bailout and Trump himself was both for it and against it.

It is also ironic since Congress thwarted any number of stimulative Obama initiatives that might have helped lower-income voters, from infrastructure spending to tax breaks for the non-rich.

Working-class whites may think they’ve elected an economic champion, but they are likely in for a disappointing four years. If Trump gets the tax plan he proposed, it will massively benefit the elites he attacked in his faux-populist campaign. If he gets the trade wars he seems to want, U.S. consumers will pay higher prices and U.S. goods will cost more overseas — meaning U.S. workers could lose jobs due to falling demand.

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And even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now acknowledges that ending the alleged “war on coal” won’t necessarily bring back coal jobs. Clean-air regulations are a factor in the decline of coal, but not nearly as significant as competition from cheap natural gas. Hillary Clinton had a plan to help coal areas transition to other industries. Trump vowed to put miners back to work in the mines — but never said how. That may be another disappointment.

Trump and the GOP are salivating at the prospect of unwinding most of what Obama has done, and some of the New Deal besides. This may include ending access to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, privatizing Medicare, reversing U.S. commitments to reducing carbon emissions, and canceling executive actions that gave pay raises to millions and allowed illegal immigrants brought here as kids to legally study, work and pay taxes.

Obama made it clear he would have preferred new laws passed by Congress to raise wages, reform immigration, and curb the carbon emissions that scientists say contribute to global warming and all its perils. But what is a president to do except resort to executive action when the stated goal of his political adversaries is to deny him any accomplishments?

And that is the ultimate unfairness — hobbling a two-term president from Day One.

Jill Lawrence is the Commentary Editor of USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence

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