Republicans don't care about human health regardless of who is to blame for the Ohio train disaster

23 February 2023

For those of us who focus closely on the rhetoric of Democratic presidents, the news, in the immortal words of Vice President Joe Biden, was a BFD.

Yesterday's news was about the current administration putting blame on the previous administration for a crisis faced by the current administration.

The White House said Wednesday the piled-high trainwreck, which darkened the skies over in East Palestine, Ohio, with plumes of deadly gas, wouldn't have happened were a set of federal railway safety regulations in full force.

But the Trump administration nixed them.

"Congressional Republicans and former Trump Administration officials owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections as well as EPA powers to rapidly contain spills," spokesman Andrew Bates toldUSA Today:

Among safety rollbacks cited by the White House, the Trump administration withdrew a 2015 proposal to require advanced braking systems on trains carrying highly flammable materials, ended regular safety audits of railroads and scrapped a proposal to require at least two crew members on freight trains.

The rhetoric of Blame the Old Guy Not the New Guy is commonplace among Republican presidents. Ronald Reagan did it. So did George W. Bush. On account of its familiarity, newsspeakers and opinionhavers don’t think about it. They imply what GOP administrations expected them to imply, which is that crises faced by Republican administrations are someone else’s fault.

You: Does the same apply to Democratic presidents?

Me: [Oprahesque side-eye.]

Whatever problems they face are theirs if only because the GOP insists on it as part of their vast right-wing conspiracy to push us into forgetting our history, ignoring causality and putting on Democrats Blame for All Things.

And all the newsspeakers and opinionhavers say, Uh-huh, seems right, yeah.

A typical consequence is Democratic presidents choosing to play along, which makes Already Bent Political Reality even more bent. It gives greater credence to the GOP’s religious belief in History What History, which means Democratic presidents have more reason to make like they believe same.

Yet with the Biden White House, here we are. It wasn't me it was him.

And all the newsspeakers and opinionhavers say, Uh-huh, seems right, yeah.

If nothing else, those of us who focus closely on the rhetoric of Democratic presidents should see this change as the Joe Bidenesque BFD that it is.

I didn't say it wasn’t stupid

You: Is the Biden administration right?

Me: [Elmoesque shrug.]

USA Today:

Jennifer Homendy, who chairs the National Transportation Safety Board, said the brake rule would not have prevented the East Palestine derailment because it was proposed for 'high-hazard flammable' trains carrying 20 or more loaded tank cars. The train that derailed did not meet that threshold.

Why would the Biden administration say Rule X would have prevented Crisis Y had the previous administration left Rule X alone if that weren’t true? Well, other than pushing us to remember history, pay attention to causality and put on Republicans Blame for All Things, I'd say it’s a clever political gambit.

Remember where East Palestine, Ohio, is.

The middle of Die-Hard Trump Country.

Voters there picked Donald Trump over Joe Biden by 40 percentage points. That's why the Republicans are making a fuss about East Palestine, Ohio.

Sorry, no, the Republicans don't care about the hazards to human and environmental health posed by vinyl chloride and other so-called Forever Chemicals on the train (because they will never break down naturally).

They care about finding a place for the disaster in the Grand Old agitProp about the Democrats hating white "working-class voters in Rust Belt states."

USA Today:

Republicans have accused President Joe Biden of ignoring East Palestine, which Trump carried by 40 percentage points in the 2020 election, decrying how the president visited Ukraine and Poland this week instead of Ohio. Their attacks come as Democratic support among working-class voters in Rust Belt states like Ohio has been on the decline for over a decade.

(I said it was the Grand Old agitProp. I didn't say it wasn't stupid.)

Which brings us back to the question: Why would the Biden administration say the old Rule X would have prevented the new Crisis Y if that weren't true?

Perhaps to show the very same white working-class Americans that the Biden administration is on their side. It would have prevented this disaster. It would put the health of humans over the health of profits. Perhaps to show them that the Biden administration is not on the side of railroad company lobbyists who had pushed the previous administration into nixing other federal railway safety regulations, though they would not have prevented the train wreck.

Perhaps to show that the Democrats care about "real Americans" even when "real Americans" vote against them. Perhaps to show that the Republicans don't care about "real Americans" even when "real Americans" vote for them.

Given that the current Biden administration is blaming the previous Trump administration, and given that the newsspeakers and opinionhavers seem to be saying, Uh-huh, seems right, yeah, those of us who focus closely on the rhetoric of Democratic presidents should see this as more than a BFD.

We should see it as Joe Bidenesque.

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