Woody Allen might have been wrong about a lot of things, but I think he nailed it when he said, “Showing up is 80 percent of life.” President Joe Biden seems to have missed this particular memo. He has yet to visit East Palestine, Ohio, site of that horrible train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals, which residents claim is making them sick (though he is “keeping very close tabs on it.”)
Let’s concede a few things up front: Joe Biden isn’t to blame for the accident, he offered help immediately, and the EPA deployed a team within hours of the derailment. It’s also entirely possible that a premature presidential visit could have actually hindered the work of first responders.
But even if making an appearance is merely a matter of optics, the optics still matter.
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As Professor Joanne B. Ciulla, who focuses on the ethical challenges of leadership, put it: “A leader’s ‘being there’ for his or her constituents is a matter of moral importance even when it lacks immediate practical value. Physical presence during or after a crisis plays a signal role in conveying moral solidarity, commitment, and concern, apart from the leader’s actual empathy or sensitivity.” (If you don’t trust academics, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made a similar point Sunday on ABC’s This Week.)
Showing up is an important part of leadership. Biden should know that by now.
But there’s another reason why failing to show up in East Palestine was a crucial mistake: In not doing so, Biden has inadvertently enabled what The Bulwark’s Tim Miller described as a “reverse Katrina situation.” In other words, Biden’s opponents have seized on this opportunity and used it to say, “You don’t care about rural white people.”
Just as in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there was a narrative that said George W. Bush didn’t “care about Black people,” there are those who suggest (fair or not) that Biden would have responded more swiftly if the derailment had occurred in a more racially diverse or progressive town.
Consider, for example, what Salem Radio talk show host Charlie Kirk said: “East Palestine, Ohio, is the heart of MAGA country... It’s 94 percent white. They voted for Trump by 80 percent or 70-80 percent.” Kirk went on to note that “they used to be Democrat,” a fact that left him wondering, “Is this some sort of cruel punishment?”
“East Palestine is overwhelmingly white, and it’s politically conservative,” my old boss Tucker Carlson said on his Fox News show. “That shouldn’t be relevant, but it very much is.”
Keying off the fact that Biden visited Ukraine on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said that “The Republican Party can be the party of Ukraine and globalists or the party of East Palestine and working Americans. Not both.”
This strikes me as a false choice for both Republicans and Democrats. One can certainly be in favor of helping Ukraine fend off an invasion from Russia and also be concerned about the plight of struggling rural Americans.
The notion that these two things are mutually exclusive is absurd. Still, the right’s message to rural Ohioans is simple: Biden cares more about Ukraine than he does about you.
Indeed, Donald Trump’s message when visiting East Palestine was pretty simple: “You are not forgotten.”
This is the kind of message I used to implore Republicans to deliver back in the days when Democrats ran circles around them in the “I feel your pain” department.
On this one day at least, Biden was outmaneuvered by Trump. Knowing this, the president should go out of his way to demonstrate his compassion and concern. He should go to East Palestine. Yesterday.
This is the right thing to do, morally. People who are hurting need to know their president cares. And it’s also the right thing to do, politically—for any president—but especially for Biden.
Kirk had a point when he said East Palestine is the kind of place that used to vote Democratic. But in recent years, these working-class enclaves have abandoned a “woke” Democratic Party that they believe sees them as the problem.
But during the 2020 Democratic primary, there was one candidate who seemed to connect with working-class voters in a meaningful way: Joe Biden.
To be sure, Ohio is no longer a swing state—and Biden lost the kinds of working-class white voters who live in East Palestine in 2020—but as I wrote at the time, “Biden won the presidency by losing groups of Americans like non-college whites by a smaller percentage than Hillary Clinton—and that made all the difference in the world.”
Biden can’t win Ohio in 2024, but if he wants to have a chance to win re-election, he will need to win at least some of the kinds of voters who might be susceptible to this developing narrative.
To be honest, he’s probably the only Democrat in the mix who has a shot at doing just that—unless he blows it. To avoid doing that, he has to take these voters seriously. He has to show up.
