Train derailment and chemical spill in Ohio

‘You’re not forgotten‘: how the right racialized the Ohio train disaster

 

This town is heavily Republican (check out their mayor for the double meaning, makes Trump look svelte). It's congressman voted to get rid of the EPA in 2016. I guarantee most residents were already "radicalized" in that they have spent years blaming imaginary enemies for their problems, real and imagined. It is the responsibility of elected officials to try to help all citizens in times of crisis or disaster, but I'm not elected to anything (good for me and the country) so I must admit that a part of my reaction to this disaster is "sowing--reaping."

 

Just so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/25/derailment-east-palestine-culture-wars/

Two weeks after a train carrying toxic chemicals went off the tracks in northeastern Ohio, President Biden sat in the Oval Office listening intently as his national security team briefed him on a different train almost 5,000 miles away, ultimately agreeing to take a clandestine rail trip into war-besieged Kyiv.

His decision to make the trip won praise globally, but it further inflamed already brewing domestic tensions over his handling of the train derailment in the small town of East Palestine.

Biden had already taken a number of behind-the-scenes steps on the derailment before that Feb. 17 meeting — calling governors, dispatching federal experts to the area and receiving briefings from top advisers. It was seen in the White House as a by-the-book response to a nonfatal event in a lightly populated area, one that would require federal help but had not ballooned into a larger disaster.

But by the time the president arrived in Kyiv on Feb. 20, the accident in East Palestine had surprised the White House — and many others — by erupting into the country’s latest cultural firefight over identity, polarization and the role of government. And by the time Biden returned to Washington, his aides were battling accusations that he had forsaken a small, predominantly White town as it struggled with the aftermath of an environmental catastrophe caused by a multibillion-dollar company.

 

If Republicans say "boo", Washington political reporters will always, always, say "Eek!"

 

Guess I'm surprised people here are falling for it.

Forsaken!

 

Remember this Right Wing Screech Machine shit fit is being directed by Faux Fascist Noise aka Rupert Murdoch aka Putin.

When Biden appeared with Zelenskyy, if the Screech Machine wasn't screeching about Biden not visiting the Ohio derailment, they'd be screeching that he hadn't gone to Birmingham to throw out the first football of the USFL season.

 

“Everything wrong in your life can be blamed on Democrats and in particular liberals. Your only hope is to vote for the GOP candidate.”

 

Part of being president is recognizing the news cycle delivers unplanned events you have to respond to, even if similar events didn’t catch on in the public attention for whatever reason. Part of it is being able to take control of the narrative (This is why we fought so hard to rebuild American infrastructure and why we’re going to keep fighting.) Part of it is not having a tin ear for public relations. Part of it is simple basic empathy, which is supposed to be our president’s long suit anyway. Part of it is good politics, because even if Biden isn’t winning Ohio in 2024 he sure as hell needs Sherrod Brown to hang on in the Senate.

Being better than Donald Trump is the cover charge, not the end goal.

 

I for one am shocked.

 

Understood. And yes, it's a missed opportunity to promote White House infrastructure programs.

But what we're seeing isn't about that. Or Trump. Or even about Biden.

It's about some Fox-fueled expectation for performative empathy arising out of white / rural / blue collar grievance.

 

Part of the Fox / grievance feedback loop.

 

Then it will be incumbent on the Democrat members of this committee to get to the root cause of this derailment, ie Trump's deregulation of railroad safety standards and the state's inept Republican leadership over the past decade that let the infrastructure deteriorate so badly.

Time to start fighting back, fellas.