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The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio reveals the glaring hypocrisy of the Republican Party [1]

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Date: 2023-02-25  

The train wreck that occurred in East Palestine could have occurred anywhere, and it will take weeks of investigation by the NTSB and others to finally conclude what could or should have been done to prevent it. But whether the ultimate cause is traced back to lack of stricter regulations, mechanical breakdown (such as an overheated wheel bearing that went undetected) corporate negligence or malfeasance or simply human error, the reaction by Trump and others in the conservative media ecosystem fits a consistent narrative, namely, that any problems experienced by Republican-leaning areas of the country (East Palestine is overwhelmingly conservative) are the result of a nefarious “other” rather than the predictable outcome of decades of pro-corporate policy promoted by the GOP.

Which explains why all the outsize conservative hysteria in this singular instance. As observed by David Graham, writing for The Atlantic, the East Palestine catastrophe reveals the fundamental dissonance between so-called the so-called “populist” rhetoric now regularly emanating from the GOP, in which individual interests and autonomy are supposedly sacrosanct, and the absolute, pro-business imperative that informs the GOP’s actual policies:

As Graham writes:

[Ohio Sen. J.D.] Vance has offered a more interesting perspective, describing a disaster that “stands at the intersection of corporate power and government power.” He’s right, and he’s also right that many residents of the region don’t trust the federal government. But these points run into the fundamental paradox of MAGA, which is the mullet of politics: populist in the front, corporatist in the back. Vance has said he wants to see higher fines for corporations like Norfolk Southern, the railroad whose train crashed. Yet when Trump was in office (as the Biden White House has been eager to point out), his signature initiatives included rolling back environmental regulations, cutting fines to corporate wrongdoers, and reducing government oversight. That even extended to eliminating rules around safety for trains transporting chemicals.

Not explored by Graham (but just as relevant, if not more) is how this inherent conflict has played out over and over throughout the U.S., as Republican candidates eagerly swoop into (invariably majority white) economically distressed areas of the rural countryside, areas which have largely bled out their youngest residents because of lack of any real opportunities for them to thrive. Their message — alongside constant (and potent) appeals to racism — is invariably the “failure” of the federal government in attending to their needs. But the ubiquitous “Walmart-ization” of these areas — now typically dominated by monotonous chain restaurants and Dollar General stores — coupled with the lack of adequate health care, elder care, environmental protection, food subsidies and investment in general infrastructure — are ultimately the products of obsessive deregulation, unrestrained financial and corporate markets and above all, the dilution of the nation’s resources through tax cuts for the wealthiest.

As amply demonstrated by the Trump administration’s wretched four-year tenure, transportation deregulation was no exception. As reported by Prem Thakker, writing this week for The New Republic:

With his party buttressed by millions of dollars in donations and lobbying from companies like Norfolk Southern, Trump overturned an Obama-era rule that required more adequate braking systems for trains carrying highly flammable and hazardous materials (instead of the Civil War-era brakes trains use now). He pulled a stalled Obama-era proposal that would have directed companies to have at least two-man crews on trains and banned states from instating such a requirement themselves. He also halted an auditing program of railroads that has since been revitalized by the Biden administration. Much of these regulatory slashes were made at the behest of special interests like the Association of American Railroads, which represents massive corporations like Norfolk Southern and heavily lobbied for the deregulatory cornucopia that Trump provided.

Whether any action or inaction by the Trump administration caused or contributed to this particular train derailment is probably impossible to determine, but the bottom line is that a political party devoted to enriching corporations at the expense of the general public cannot expect to be taken seriously when the inevitable disaster happens to occur in their own neighborhood, and to their own “people.” Republicans have established an indisputable record in gutting workplace safety protections, environmental protections, fair labor standards, health care programs, and consumer protection laws, to name just a few areas in which the interests of ordinary Americans are routinely devalued by the GOP in favor of increasing corporate profits. And while Democrats certainly can’t escape some responsibility for the devolution of manufacturing jobs that once sustained those parts of the country we now call “red America,” the suggestion that the Biden administration or Democrats in general have “abandoned” the people who live in these areas is pure hogwash. If anything. Democratic regulation and legislation has prevented what occurred in East Palestine from becoming a routine occurrence.

So the performative displays of concern we see from the right in the wake of this disaster — one which has the hallmarks of corporate negligence written all over it — and the cynical stoking of public sentiment against the Biden administration (echoed last week in chants of “Let’s Go Brandon” by the residents of East Palestine as they cheered the arrival of Donald Trump loudly riding to the rescue), should be viewed in the context of a Republican Party that has no legitimate basis to complain about such occurrences, which are, after all, the natural and predictable outcome of their pro-business dogma.

x Look at the love and happiness on this East Palestine resident’s face after seeing President Trump motorcade. pic.twitter.com/JBaeU1OmNf — I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) February 22, 2023

What occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, is the ugly intersection where the so-called “populism” of the Republican Party collides with the reality of their policies. Republicans now belatedly pointing fingers to place blame on Norfolk Southern for the East Palestine train derailment — or worse, on the Biden administration for its response — simply forfeited their credibility on such matters when they consciously elected to prioritize corporate interests and corporate profits over measures (through regulation and otherwise) to protect American citizens. The only “abandonment” that happened here is the conscious abandonment by the GOP of any interest in the general welfare of the American public — including any concerns for the health and safety of their own voter base — and that ship sailed a long, long time ago.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/25/2154919/-The-train-derailment-in-East-Palestine-Ohio-reveals-the-glaring-hypocrisy-of-the-Republican-Party

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