"The 9 most terrifying words in the English language are I'm from the Government & I'm here to help." Those were the infamous words from Reagan and often repeated by conservatives.
Deregulation and related policies are GOP dogma.
Each Republican president has made deregulation a priority, including Trump who removed Obama era regulations on trains.
Trump in fact, made cutting regulations a significant part of this administration. It’s something that he talked about from early in his term through the midterms.
Cutting regulations was a major focus of Trump’s 2018 CPAC speech where he boasted about it...
"No president has ever cut so many regulations in their entire term …as we’ve cut in less than a year."
A local tv news affiliate reported on the dangers of the removing train regulations five years, noting the possibility of a scenario just like what happened in Ohio...
Trump administration rolls back Obama-era oil train rules
Any administration should be scrutinized for responses to events etc., but the GOP claims are in bad faith of course.
Additionally, there is something not being discussed. Sure, many of us have already pointed out what Trump did and what Republicans have done for decades. However, when a Republican responds to us for pointing out Trump’s deregulation, their response is “well Biden has been in office for two years.”
Who in the media is asking conservatives this in response:
“So, do you admit that Trump was wrong to remove the Obama era regulations and do you concede that Republicans indiscriminately cutting regulations is dangerous?”
You can bet, that if the person responds that they will defend the actions.
Well, they can’t have it both ways.
If they vote for and defend deregulation and more so — if they strongly view that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are I'm from the Government & I'm here to help."
… well then, the train wreck is literally the outcome of their beliefs and their only complaint about government response to the tragedy should actually be that the government is responding at all. After all, that is the most “terrifying” thing that could happen.
For too long, Republicans have hurt us and put in danger. At the same time, they have consistently responded in disingenuous and bad faith rhetoric. For days, the most toxic of GOP grifters in Congress and their media counterparts have been outraged at the Biden administration’s response to Ohio. Beyond the usual bullshit, they have even suggested that it’s because East Palestine Ohio is mostly white.
Every Republican needs to be on the record on regulations, especially if they attempt to criticize the current administration’s response to the disaster.
Democrats need to have consistent messaging on this and remind Americans that they have time and time again supported measure to protect citizens, whether they live in California, Ohio, Utah or Alabama.
I grew up in an adjacent county to the one where East Palestine is. It’s heart breaking to see an area that has already struggled, to go through this and it pisses me off to no end that the GOP enabled this disaster as well as so many others.
