Train wreck in Ohio
A missed opportunity for Democrats, Biden, and Buttigieg.
A Financial Advisor's perspective.
The clients of a Financial Advisor sometimes get disappointed. A stock loses value. A successful Financial Advisor gets through these rough spots with the relationship strengthened, not frayed.
I write again about Buttigieg because my expectations of him are high as a potential candidate and officeholder. He made the mistakes of a rookie Financial Advisor in the train derailment disaster. By the time Buttigieg got to the scene, it was no longer a message of empathy. It was a message of me-too catch-up.
He is certainly smart enough to be a good president. He may too smart, and not empathetic enough. His instincts may be wrong.
There is a difference between the political parties as regards regulations on corporations. Republicans are proudly the party of fewer regulations, calling them burdensome job-killers. Trump said he would repeal two regulations for every one regulation the government imposed. Democrats are more favorable toward regulations. After all, it was Democrats who wanted mask and vaccination mandates. Democrats make the case that regulations protect us and Republicans make the case that regulations stifle us. Everyone understands who is whom.
The derailment accident was a perfect object lesson in the value of regulations to protect innocent bystanders. The exact particulars of the safety protocols and how many workers were on that particular train are excuses and quibbles. No one cares. Politically, one simple thing happened: A big corporation fought safety regulations, and then something bad happened in East Palestine.
Democrats tried explaining it, blaming Republicans. See? We are on your side. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates wrote:
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. Congressional Republicans laid the groundwork for the Trump Administration to tear up requirements for more effective train brakes, and last year most House Republicans wanted to defund our ability to protect drinking water.
Worthless words.
Buttigieg tried explaining that the real work was being done by EPA officials from the start. He justified not being there physically.
There's two kinds of people who show up when you have that kind of disaster experience: people who are there because they have a specific job to do and are there to get something done, and people who are there to look good and have their picture taken.
More worthless words. Is that factually true about showboats? No matter. It sounds like an excuse from someone who doesn't want to be bothered.
The optics of this disaster played out exactly as I feared when I wrote three days ago. Eastern Ohio is a White working-class area that gave 40-point margins to Trump. J.D. Vance, the new GOP senator from Ohio, said,
"These are sort of our people. It's a reasonably rural community. It's been affected by industrialization. These are the people who really lost when we lost our manufacturing base to China. And these are the people who are going to be forgotten by the media unless certain voices make sure that their interests are at the forefront."
A Financial Advisor would consider East Palestine to be a "good client" of Team GOP. Team GOP showed up to save that relationship. They held a media event with Donald Trump and the local mayor in East Palestine. Trump donated water bottles. They all criticized Biden for not caring about Ohio. They did not try to explain railroad safety rules. They tried to show that, in adversity, they were standing alongside local people.
A successful Financial Advisor does not get through a rough spot of client disappointment by sending a research report. One calls. One talks. One meets. A successful Financial Advisor attends the funeral of a client if at all possible.
I still have a Financial Advisor's perspective. Republicans opposition to railroad safety regulations make these incidents more likely, not less likely. No matter. The GOP people made a house call. These are our people and we want to be with family at a time of adversity. The Democrats phoned it in. They came with technicians on the ground and written reports arguing they were right all along. Every experience I have over a 30-year career as a Financial Advisor is that the GOP keeps the account.
Maintaining a client in a time of adversity is a matter of shared identity, not policy. Identity trumps policy. Democrats should know that. Democratic pundits scoffed at Trump going off to eat a McDonalds after the event. Democratic pundits shouldn't be sneering. They should be learning. Normal, regular working-class people eat at McDonalds.
These are our people, Vance said, and Republicans showed it.