Seeing through the US Political Pattern of Passing the Buck

It has been more than 20 days since the “toxic train” incident in the U.S., and the environmental authorities are insisting that everything is safe, but many residents returning to their homes have reported various health problems, and locally roughly 3,500 fish from 12 species have died due to water contamination. Former President Donald Trump recently took his own brand of bottled water to the village of East Palestine, once again criticizing the Biden administration for its “indifference and betrayal.”

Railway accidents are not uncommon in the U.S., but this one has clearly provided another opportunity to do bipartisan battle. Trump was joined at the scene by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg,* who left local residents unimpressed despite reiterating his commitment to freight rail reform, and the pair of leather dress boots on his feet only served to draw Republican ire that he was putting on a show. This was followed by a letter to Buttigieg from 21 Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, dissatisfied with the snail’s pace of the Department of Transportation’s addressing the issue and demanding a series of records related to the incident. Under intense pressure, The Hill pessimistically noted that for many in Washington, the Ohio train derailment — in which chemicals including the carcinogen vinyl chloride were released into the East Palestine area — had become a new point of political contention for both parties.

Throughout it all, neither this terrible incident nor its serious consequences for public safety has been adequately addressed. The threat to the residents' lives and health had not at any point received mainstream media attention, and had it not been for the brutal treatment of a journalist by local officials, the story would probably still have been unknown to the public a week later. In the aftermath, the Democrats’ thoughts have focused on how to do nothing in this key district that could be used against them and trying to pin the blame on the railway company and the historical promises of the Trump administration, while the Republicans have seized on the scandal to do all they can to deal the Democrats a serious blow before the start of the election cycle. Passing the buck and pointing the finger have become key features of American politics of late, and both parties are having to devote their energies to a constant spiral of proving themselves to voters. Ineffective political battling has crowded out a lot of communication resources and succeeded in diverting public attention.

Treating internal ailments externally has long been the go-to American way of dealing with things. As we have seen, in parallel with the train derailment incident and how it has been handled, the U.S. government has upset regional security with one malicious shoot-down after another, making use of the so-called balloon incident and escalating the hype surrounding it. At the same time, on the first anniversary of the crisis in Ukraine, its front-line supervision of the war has brought to naught all parties' efforts to achieve peace. Clearly, U.S. dominance of public opinion around the world remains firmly entrenched, thanks to a rambunctious political corps and an obedient press. On the one hand, with its hypocritical “human rights” and “democracy” rhetoric, the U.S. places itself on the moral high ground as the defender of justice while stigmatizing rival countries; on the other, it possesses a huge public opinion-making apparatus, from officials at the government level to think tanks and media organizations at the unofficial level as well as American cultural products and professional communicators at the popular level. All of these are constantly shifting the focus and direction of global public opinion and sloganeering on behalf of the U.S., and this has made it possible for the U.S. to successfully divert the attention of public opinion and deflect domestic conflict.

The “toxic train” incident has exposed the flailing sham of U.S.-style politics, constantly politicizing issues and neglecting action for the sake of indulging in partisanship internally while using the American discourse system and the power of international communications externally to constantly consolidate its narrative dominance. However, in the final analysis, the competition between countries over discourse ability is a competition over the ability to govern, and the people’s dissatisfaction with the chaotic and turbulent politics of the U.S. and their justified yearning for a better life will ultimately determine in which direction they go.

Author affiliation: Department for American Studies of the Institute of International Strategic Studies, Central Party School (National Academy of Governance)

*Editor's Note: Secretary Buttigieg visited East Palestine, Ohio, a day after former President Trump.