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.
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? 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.
8 comments:
Republicans are experts at messaging and Democrats not so much. This has been true for a long time and it has led to Republican rule. I don’t think Democrats will ever be as good at it. It seems like it shouldn’t be so important, but it obviously is VERY important.
Disagree about your estimation of Biden. He was in Ukraine. He showed up where he needed to, in fact he showed up above expectations -- ANY expectations for ANY president in a war zone. Buttigieg is turning into a political liability. He has the smarts but hasn't got the instinct. He is in a place where in this administration with its priorities he could write his own ticket, but naw, he phones it in and turns up late. He still has plenty of time to learn, but if he misses these opportunities now it's likely that he will not get them in the future.
The optics of Biden in Kyiv were far more impressive than Biden in East Palestine. We already know the cause of the accident and the EPA is addressing the environmental concerns. Other than optics, it serves no purpose for Biden and/or Buttigieg to show up and gawk at a train wreck, and it will take more than optics for voters who gave Trump a 40-point margin to have a change of fart. Since they already drank his Kool-Aid, they might as well chase it with “Trump water.” That should fix everything.
When Republicans were winning Democrats tried to be more Republican-lite. It's a spillover from the Trump years. Red and Purple State Democrat office seekers got the wrong message. Democrats say they are the rank and file union supporter, the kitchen table concerned, the "for the people" representative. Instead like the pigs in Animal Farm they appear to turn their backs on the barnyard and appear worse than the Republicans. What did they do? They stayed in Washington and the urban areas. Maybe a bit to strong, but the culture of America has changed over the Trump-Covid years. America is dressed down. Some Democrats got the wrong message, that Zooming to a funeral is an act or caring. My Red State relatives expect me to show up for a funeral in person. Anything less is meaningless. In a nutshell, there you have it, the reason Red State folks vote against their own self interest... because the Republican showed up as one of them in their time of need.
The train wreck was real, the chemicals are real and the concerns of those affected, the residents, are real. However, is the political "outrage" fake news created by Fox and the GQP?
The Biden Administration showed up. I can't speak for Secretary Pete, but I don't believe that he was ignoring the situation. Did he send a representative, such as another high ranking Transportation official? Were they in close, daily contact the proper authorities in Pennsylvania?
Democrats should always strive to do what is needed in any given situation. But allowing Faux News to set the agenda and taking the bait is foolish. Just because Faux News and the GQP say and promote something doesn't make it true.
On the other hand, I recall when the (Massachusetts-raised) Mayor of Nashville, Karl Dean, a lawyer, announced that he wanted to sell the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. The land is prime real estate located just off the interstate highway and less than five miles from the downtown. Outrage ensued. A vocal opposition organized to fight the plan. Some native Nashvillians and their allies felt betrayed and disrespected. They felt that their culture, traditions and hometown were under attack. (The fairgrounds also were used for many other local activities and also has a racetrack.)
The moral of the story is that government technocrats need to consider the needs and feelings of all of their constituents. As a former Indiana mayor, Secretary Pete should be highly aware of this.
This is an example of the Looking Glass world of the right wing.
First of all, there is a fundamental hypocrisy with the "small government" BS and supporting Republican deregulation, paid for by industry lobbyists, especially health and safety regulation. Then when there is an industry caused disaster they line up for their free water bottles. Ugh...
Buttigieg's and the White House's statements were true and had substance, completely lacking in Vance's pandering. I'd argue which was actually worthless.
If this had happened under a Republican administration they would still blame Democrats. so that's a moot point.
I think you are describing Stockholm Syndrome.
I agree with Peter.
As I have said many times, a useful way to understand the appeal of a politician is to watch them with the sound turned off. What did we see when we observed politicians responding to the train wreck in East Palestine?
Democrats: Nowhere to be seen. All they could be seen to be moving was their mouths. Joe Biden had a good excuse; he was in Ukraine. But he could’ve flown back directly from Ukraine to East Palestine. Pete Buttigieg had no excuse; not showing up was a major act of political incompetence. It could have been a good opportunity for Kamala Harris, but she didn’t show up either.
Republicans: JD Vance was right there, showing that he cared. Donald Trump was there distributing large quantities of bottled water; a compelling photo-op.
It reminds me of the divide I experienced in industry between sales/marketing and engineering. We engineers had almost no understanding of what sales/marketing did, and we tended to look down our noses at them for their lack of understanding of what we did. The same was true of sales/marketing, going in the other direction,
The Democrats seem to be in a position analogous to engineering; they are busy tinkering with the structure of government, getting it to work better and do more. Republicans are more like the sales/marketing side; uninterested in the mechanics of government, but very good at understanding and motivating the audience of potential customers.
Despite our attitudes, we engineers always understood that without sales/marketing, no one would buy our products. We knew we needed sales/marketing. I wonder if the Democratic “engineers“ have that same understanding.
To the extent that marketing consists of making empty gestures, Republicans certainly are better at it. Surveying FEMA’s incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush told its chief, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!” A couple weeks after Hurricane Maria, Trump went to Puerto Rico and tossed rolls of paper towels to people who lacked water, food, shelter or basic necessities. And, of course Republicans can always be counted on to offer “thoughts and prayers” in lieu of anything useful every time some madman with an assault rifle uses it to slaughter school children. Now that’s what I call marketing.
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