Since Ronald Reagan was President, and politicianTom McClintock began his career, the Republican Party has pushed for deregulation. What happened to the railway in E. Palestine can be traced to a change made by the Trump Department of Transportation in 2018. Trump’s DOJ deregulated 2015 Obama DOT rules. Specifically, a regulation Obama’s DOT put in place that required ECP brakes on trains carrying crude oil and certain hazardous materials. These ECP brake rules were scrapped by the Trump administration. News stories from 2018 demonstrate that experts knew why these regulations were put in place and what types of accidents the Trump DOT was potentially enabling.
How does this relate to the 5th District?
For more than 40 years, Representative McClintock has pushed for broad deregulation. In fact, at the end of 2018, after Trump’s DOT removed the ECP brake regulations, he celebrated removing Obama-era regulations.
Rep. McClintock’s public policy perspective requires him to reject governmental regulation. It is in his DNA and he has been consistent on this throughout his more than 40-year career as a professional politician. As a professional politician, Rep. McClintock has won multiple awards for fighting regulations and government spending. I contend that Representative McClintock’s Republican Party ethos is culpable for the E. Palestine train derailment, as well as deaths and environmental problems, that emerge from his deregulatory mindset. It is almost always the case that deregulation can be traced to political corruption. I’m sure E. Palestine will be no different.
Can you provide a specific 5th District example?
Let’s consider the floods in Mariposa county. A recent story in the Mariposa Gazette asked, Why does Mariposa County not participate in the FEMA flood insurance program? I found Representative McClintock has, what can only be termed, a schizophrenic policy perspective.
In 2017, when Mariposa was in California’s 4th District, it was common knowledge that Mariposa wasn’t included in FEMA. Did McClintock attempt to get the county, the only one in California not included in FEMA, underneath the federal umbrella? The professional politician’s governing ethos hasn’t changed. He has never pushed for federal oversight.
However, the professional politician is schizophrenic because he acts one way in Washington, DC and tells his constituents something else. Apparently the professional politician tells his supporters, who then write Letters to the Editor, that he is instrumental in getting FEMA help. His supporters, inexplicably, point to his ability to bring the federal government into the county. Thus, the professional politician uses the federal government when it suits his narrow re-election self-interest but, by constant deregulation and continually starving FEMA of funding, the professional politician is simply waiting for his career to end or his constituents to die. The professional politician’s career is a sleight of hand where he tells constituents he will provide help while simultaneously cutting federal lifelines that actually provide assistance.
Then, once he wins re-election, he tells everyone how he is going to do away with FEMA and federal regulations.
Then the professional politician has the unmitigated gall to demand the federal government and FEMA support his District.
Truly, shamelessness is professional politician Representative McClintock’s superpower. It is not commendable but I find it impressive that he is a walking embodiment of everything a Political Scientist learns about career-oriented professional politicians. He selfishly uses the bureaucracy when it helps his constituents while holding the cruel view that it shouldn’t exist at all. The true wonder is how he continually gets away with presenting both sides without serious pushback.
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