East Palestine: The game of finding fault

Never let a tragedy “go to political waste,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. After a 141-car train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last month, Democrats and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg decided to turn the disaster into “a parable of corporate greed.” The Democrats’ narrative was that the Norfolk Southern train left the tracks, spilling more than 100,000 gallons of vinyl chloride and other chemicals, because the railroad and Republicans had blocked and rolled back safety regulations. Among the regulations Buttigieg cited was an Obama-era requirement that certain trains be equipped with expensive, state-of-theart braking technology. But this derailment was not caused by braking problems, and “there’s no evidence” that any of Buttigieg’s other regulatory fixes would have mattered.

Showing up would have mattered, said Joe Concha in The Hill. Buttigieg took three long weeks to visit East Palestine, where residents feel understandable fear about exposure to toxic air and water. When he finally got there, Buttigieg— in office for more than two years—blamed the Trump administration for failing to regulate the rail industry. “If he wants to be president one day, Buttigieg must show more effort, urgency, and competency.” The Democrats’ handling of this disaster has been “political malpractice,” said Alex Shephard in The New Republic. For weeks, “the political right has owned the story.” On Fox News and right-wing media, the narrative is that the coastal elites couldn’t care less about East Palestine because it’s rural and “overwhelmingly white.” That populist smoke screen has obscured the reality that the disaster occurred because Norfolk Southern “put profits ahead of safety,” with Republican support. Democrats should just say “they’ll make the trains safer”—and dare Republicans to oppose them.

Actually, some Republicans already are on board, said Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent in The Washington Post. Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida are challenging the rail industry’s efforts to reduce staff on mile-long trains to a single worker; other Republicans are saying train companies should be required to inform communities any time hazardous materials travel through. Will Republicans abandon their reflexive, “pro-corporate deregulatory agenda” because rural voters were the victims of this disaster? “We’re skeptical, but we’re hopeful.”