I confess that a kind of depression has set in as I contemplate our political life these days. I could catalog a long list of reasons, but that recent viral interview in which Jon Stewart interviewed Nathan Dahm, an Oklahoma State Senator, about the second amendment, crystallized why I've been feeling a recurring sense of despair about our future prospects. I won’t rehash the particulars of the exchange because they don’t really matter. While many celebrated Stewart’s roasting of Dahm, what struck me was Dahm’s complete imperviousness to the very notions of logical inconsistency, flawed premises or factual holes. Certainly nothing will deter him from reconsidering whether a proliferation of semiautomatic weapons, for example, could in any conceivable way threaten the safety of children, about which he professes to care more than anything. In the style of argument on display in his interview with Stewart, Dahm reflects what is now typical among elected Republican officials. All that matters is the assertion of belief itself, the need to draw some logical and empirical connection between actions and consequences be damned.
That’s a preface to a brief comment about the train derailment that took place in East Palestine, Ohio last month. In its aftermath, Republicans have been tripping over themselves to blame President Biden in particular, and Democrats in general, for the accident. One common version of the story common in rightwing circles is that Democrats hate White people, so are indifferent to their plight. Therefore…well, I can’t even complete the logical train, if you will, because its nonsensical. As everyone who has been alive for the last several decades knows, among the prime directives of the modern GOP has been to attack the regulatory state. Of most immediate relevance to East Palestine, the Trump administration reversed or otherwise killed off rules put in place, or attempted by the Obama administration to fortify train safety. One such rule required the installation of brakes that would make bunching up of cars in the event a conductor had to slam on the brakes less likely. But under lobbying from the rail industry, Trump reversed the requirement. Another concerned regulations about what counts as a hazardous material in train transport, when the Trump administration killed off an Obama era rule that would have required at least two-man crews. In a chef’s kiss move, that Trump administration decision actually banned states from installing their own such requirements which, let us recall, would seem to contradict GOPers current bleating that the accident is, among other things, a result of federal overreach.
Of course, the Josh Hawleys, Ted Cruzes, Jim Jordans and Trumps of the world don’t give a rat’s ass about the well-being of the people of East Palestine, at least not if we judge them by what they actually vote for or against. As many news outlets have noted, East Palestine is a struggling community and also one that went heavily for Trump in 2020. This is one basis of the claim that Democrats didn’t care about the accident (which is supposed to mean they caused it. Or something). But when it comes to actually trying to screw over the people there, the record is clear. As Joan McCarter pointed out, residents of Columbiana County, in which East Palestine is located, are heavily dependent on federal programs. For example, in 2021, about a third of the county’s roughly 100,000 residents are enrolled in Medicaid. In addition, an estimated 14,000 people, including over 5,000 children, are SNAP (food stamp) recipients. I needn’t remind you how doggedly the GOP, including the aforementioned, have worked to gut those programs over the years.
Indeed, just last week, as Republicans continued to scream bloody murder about Democrats’ neglect in East Palestine, Prem Thekker reported that “the GOP-controlled House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted to reverse a Biden administration rule on water protection” - a rule with direct relevance to the release of contaminants caused by the derailment. Following the usual pattern, that Biden administration rule reinstated a version of an Obama era rule strengthening regulation of secondary waterways that - wait for it - was reversed by Trump. The new Republican attempt to reverse the rule has been signed onto by 24 Republican state Attorneys General, reflecting the broad consensus in the party for such a move.
As these things go, what actually caused the derailment will, according to experts, take perhaps years to sort out. A patchwork of regulatory agencies and rules adds complexity and opacity to our massive rail transport network. Years of aggressive cost-cutting by the rail industry, including by axing tens of thousands of employees in an era of record profits, has created increasing vulnerabilities in the system. Critics have pointed to a lack of sense of urgency by the Biden administration to reinstate more fully and expeditiously comprehensive safety regulations that might have averted the East Palestine accident.
But there is no remotely plausible story in which the Republican Party and, in particular, its most loud-mouthed representatives can claim that anything they’ve done in their public lives would have mitigated the risks that East Palestine community members face as a result of the accident. Indeed, judging by their record, you could only conclude that their most fervent hope was to make everything worse. Not that any of that will matter, and no amount of pointing out to them the disconnect between their professed outrage on the one hand and their actions on the other will move them. They just don’t care.
I say, therefore it is
I was wondering if you'd write about East Palestine. From what I've read, it is unlikely that the regulations Trump undid would have saved this train wreck, but the larger point is that the derailment proves that what was needed wasn't less regualtion but MORE regulation. And on this point, I do feel the Democrats missed a huge opportunity. I understand there are 1,000 train wrecks a year, but this one clearly stood out and had the Biden Administration jumped on it right away and taken the political initiative, it could have stolen at least some of the GOP's fire. And yet, the fact that the GOP is trying to turn East Palestine into a political win confirms your observation that there is a total disconnect between reality and their actions, which their supporters seem to miss.
Jonathan:
It's not Biden that was shamed by conservative media, it was Pete Buttigieg. He is very consistently attacked (rightly or wrongly) as being much more concerned about DEI than transportation. He admits himself that he should have visited the disaster site sooner and considering its scope, it was a misstep. As for Biden, his disdain is for white Republicans and most emphatically for Trump voters, not whites in general.
You fall into a media trap when you assign blame to Donald Trump and it is partisan and myopic to cite Kos and the New Republic. (But thank you for citing them.) These stories are easily contradicted. Most obviously this: "NTSB Chair Contradicts Posts That Wrongly Claim Trump to Blame for Ohio Train Wreck" Our emotions too easily lead us to confirmation bias.