In the United States, Republicans on a crusade against “woke capitalism”

Of course he loves nature! The proof ? He wears a tie with a design of a deer’s head. “You must not believe: I love the outdoors, I walk, I fish, I hunt. I too want to save the planet. But I have to defend our industry against those who want us dead. » A funny fellow, Senator Randy E. Smith.

Sixty days a year, this 63-year-old Republican takes up residence at the West Virginia state capitol in Charleston, where he chairs the Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. From there, he votes the shelling of companies that invest in green energy – “this new woke fad”, he annoys, using the term now used by conservatives to designate progressive values. The rest of the year, he works underground in a coal mine. His office as a senator looks like a museum. Miner’s helmets on the shelves, pictures of blackheads all over the walls. “Here, it’s me, there, it’s my whole team”he says proudly.

That day, when we enter his lair, we interrupt him in the middle of a conversation with two representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association, the main organization for the defense of coal interests. At the capitol of West Virginia, one of the five largest producers of fossil fuels in the United States, the coal lobby is clearly on hold. He even managed to install a huge statue of a miner at the entrance to the building.