As a reminder of the themes of this present Ultra series, we are reviewing in chronological order key, iconic events that fueled both the political recovery of Donald Trump and encapsulated and were emblematic of why he ran far ahead of Joe Biden and later defeated his successor Kamala Harris.
We are trying again to make sense of how Trump went from being wildly demonized after the January 6 protests and damned by grandees of his own party, to defeating his primary rivals, winning the general election, and enjoying current approval rates from 50-55 percent.
First the details:
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train went off the rails in East Palestine, Ohio. Unfortunately for the residents of the small town (population: ca. 4,800; per capita income: 16,243; racial make-up: 98% white), the train was carrying several loads of dangerous chemicals. And some 11 tankers of the more than 50 derailed cars (the train was nearly 2 miles long) contained some potentially deadly materials like benzenes, isobutylene vinyl chlorides, and glycol ethers.
Many of the tank cars blew up from the derailment and burned fiercely for two days. Others were deliberately ignited by cleanup crews—in fears that the inevitable release of deadly hydrogen chloride and phosgene gases (my Swedish grandfather was permanently disabled with toasted and ravaged lungs, esophagus, and stomach, after suffering German mustard and phosgene attacks in World War I) was marginally preferable to risking further explosions and releases of more unpredictable and lethal clouds.
Everyone within a 1-mile radius was evacuated. But for months subsequently, residents complained of foul air, polluted streams, and persistent toxic odors in their homes, yards, and workplaces.
Critics cited various reasons for the disastrous derailment. The culprits ranged from shortened crews, poor brake backup systems, and delayed preventative maintenance. News coverage, on Fox especially, highlighted interviews with residents who were sick, had no money to relocate, were out of work, in need of assistance, and felt their now devalued homes still radiated toxicity.
Video tapes of the original noxious clouds, of the charred tanker cars, and of off-color, foul-smelling streams and ponds shocked the nation. So did a rare media, first-hand glimpse of a poor white Appalachian small town that certainly did not exude the “rage”, the “privilege” and the “supremacy” that the elite Left in academia, the media, and the government equate on marquee television with supposedly noxious and toxic “white people.”
About two weeks after the train derailed, on February 23, 2023, Donald Trump visited the town, bringing in some supplies, and talking nonstop to residents in the street and town hall.
Trump seized on Biden’s simultaneous decision to make a surprise visit to Ukraine that very week: he gives billions overseas in person; you get nothing from him in absentia.
So, Trump reminded the town that it was tragic that while Biden was promising Ukrainians millions of dollars in military and economic aid, he had not yet taken commensurate time and effort to visit East Palestine. (And he would not visit the town for more than a year later).
Transportation Secretary and initially no-show Pete Buttigieg, perhaps prompted by Trump’s visit, shortly after, belatedly came to East Palestine. But his visit was near disastrous; the out of place elitist resembled former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Dukakis’s head bobbling in his tank.
Buttigieg could not really explain why no high administration had visited the disaster zone for nearly a month for firsthand appraisals until his own belated arrival. The short-tempered and embarrassed secretary angrily tore into Trump. He whined that while he was doing his homework studying the causes of the wreck, Trump was demagoguing the issue, and yet had supposedly empowered heartless corporations like Northern Suffolk.
So Buttigieg did not go over well.
Trump instinctually had grasped that East Palestine, Ohio, as a white, working class, and impoverished community, would be naturally a MAGA stronghold and thus receive little sympathy from the politicized Biden administration and none from the elite media, academia, and professional world. It sees the lose/lose white working class not as romantic as downtrodden minorities, but also without the taste and culture of the Hollywood, Harvard, and the Upper West Side white leftist aristocracy.
So, what was the result of the Trump visit?
A number of things. It reminded working-class white America that its elites considered it a low priority if not obnoxious MAGA mob. In comparison to how elites like Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris immediately reacted to the faker Jussie Smollett’s obvious racial hate crime hoax, the lethargy of the Left over East Palestine radiated throughout the country.
East Palestine also acculturated Trump to adapt to the news cycle and amplify his own messaging and MAGA populist themes—foreshadowing the later MacDonald’s and garbage truck campaign events to come in 2024.
From the looks and comments of East Palestinians to the belated visits of their transportation secretary and president, it might have been politically wiser for Buttigieg and Biden simply to have avoided the victims. They got no political bounce and should have stayed clear of those whom Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have collectively damned as clingers, irredeemables, deplorables, dregs, and chumps.
The Democrats’ visits only confirmed their stereotyped views of the residents and the latter’s views of them. Instead, the way Biden had handled the disaster and the manner in which Buttigieg and Biden belatedly visited the town presaged why the Democrats would implode in 2024.
The post <span class="ultra-flag"><i class="fas fa-lock"></i>VDH Ultra</span>Turning Points on the Road to Trump’s Election: Visiting and Non-Visiting East Palestine Ohio. East Palestine February 23, 2023 appeared first on VDH’s Blade of Perseus.