By Chris Satullo
Perhaps you’ve heard…Joe Biden cares more about Ukraine than he does Ohio.
These days, if you ever make the mistake of tuning into Fox News of an evening, you’ll hear this statement in some form about every two minutes.
Here’s the evidence for that odd claim: In February the President chose not to race to the train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, for a pointless, counterproductive photo op. He decided instead to take a surprise lightning trip to Kyiv. He opted to signal America’s steadfast support for a brave, besieged ally rather than to complicate the situation on the ground in East Palestine, as representatives of his administration worked with state and local officials to assess and remedy the health hazards posed by the scary derailment.
The Foxy mantra, of course, just plugs into longstanding right-wing narratives about a) coastal (i.e. Democratic) elites scorning the hard-working people of Real America, and b) Joe Biden being beholden to shadowy forces in Ukraine.
But as a former Ohioan, a Buckeye born and bred, might I be allowed to weigh in?
Perhaps my credentials might also be bolstered by having spent my entire adult life in Pennsylvania, the bordering state where some residents also have felt endangered by accident’s chemical releases.
I should note, in the interests of full disclosure, that I come from the part of Ohio where the state’s name is pronounced phonetically: “Oh-hi-oh.” That northern part of the state is, admittedly bluer, more diverse. East Palestine sits a bit farther south, close to the invisible line where the state’s name converts in the mouths of residents to “Uh-hi-uh” and the political leanings turn mighty red mighty quick.
Now, I understand that – as once was proclaimed by a film sage whose name is no longer spoken in polite company – “90 percent success in life is just showing up.” I’m aware that Donald Trump did show up swiftly in East Palestine to hand out red hats and Trump-branded bottles of water (must have left the paper towels back at Mar-a-Lago, in the same closet as the classified docs).
And I do see that any sound calculus of political messaging would conclude that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg screwed up by not showing up sooner to convey the Biden team’s concern for the people of East Palestine. (Let me mention, though, that the huge flap over the nature of the footwear Buttigieg wore to the accident scene displayed with depressing vividness how shallow the national conversation has become.)
Anyway, let’s go deeper on the pressing issue of who really cares about Ohioans. As a former Buckeye, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the following facts demonstrate Joe Biden’s meaningful, ongoing concern for the people of my native state – just as Trump’s showy distribution of MAGA hats and Trumpy H2O fit neatly with his long record of fundamental contempt for them:
- Thanks to one of Biden’s signature initiatives, Ohio is getting $9.9 billion to spend on its ailing infrastructure. (As a former Ohio Highway Department worker, every time I visit my hometown of Cleveland I’m shocked, just shocked, by the disrepair of the interstates where I once fixed potholes and inspected bridges.) Trump often flapped his gums about building bridges and roads, regularly declaring “Infrastructure Week,” but never actually did diddly.
- Biden is trying to give student loan relief to1.68 million Ohioans who owe an average of $34,000 per person. A Supreme Court stacked with Trump appointees is probably going to block him from doing that. The main higher education initiative of Trump’s career, of course, was defrauding the people who fell for his “Trump University” scam.
- Biden’s American Rescue Plan sent $5.4 billion to Ohio to help Gov. Mike DeWine’s government pays its bills and help Ohioans recover from the pandemic. DeWine then turned around and said he would have voted against the plan if he were still a senator. Of course he said that; that’s the kind of thing one has to do to stay alive in a MAGA-fied Republican Party. I don’t want to pick on DeWine, though. He’s a rare surviving example of a competent, moderate Republican who prefers doing his job to doubling down on performative outrage. DeWine did yeoman service during the early days of the pandemic by giving Ohioans accurate, up-to-date guidance on staying safe. During the East Palestine fiasco, he has focused mainly on working with the feds to help his scared and endangered constituents and left the Biden-bashing to others.
- Oh, almost forgot to mention, the American Rescue Plan also sent another $5.3 billion directly to Ohio’s counties and municipalities to help them deal with pandemic issues, including the damage the recession wreaked on their budgets. Columbiana County, where East Palestine sits, got $20 million. (By the way, Sean and Tucker and Jeanine, these stats and facts took me about five minutes do dig up via Google. You just have to care enough to try to find them.)
- A fair question might be rising in your mind, so I’ll answer it: By the end of 2022, the U.S. had sent $47 billion worth of aid and materiel to Ukraine to help it fight Russian aggression. Which, yes, is about twice as much as Biden has sent, or tried to send, Ohio in the last two years. (I’m not counting here the individual aid that Ohio taxpayers, along with those throughout the country, got.) Recall, though, that Ukraine is a sovereign nation, a key ally, while Ohio is just one of 50 states. Recognize, also, that Ukraine (four times more populous than Ohio) is being bled by an invading power which, not so long ago, Republicans regarded as America’s fiercest enemy – so much so that they derided Democrats like Biden for being “soft” on Russia. By contrast, the biggest collective trauma that Ohioans have faced lately may have been the Buckeyes losing (oh, so close!) in the college football playoffs and the Bengals not making the Super Bowl.
One more fun fact before I go. Guess what state has the fourth-highest total of Ukrainian-American residents? Yep, Ohio, with about 49,000. I’d have guessed it was even more, since the Ukrainian presence is concentrated around where I grew up. Parma, a Cleveland suburb just south of the city, has one of the highest per capita Ukrainian presences of any place in America.
Gee, Tucker, maybe you ought to hold a town hall in Parma and explain to the good folks there why Vladimir Putin is such as swell guy and why Ukraine’s survival isn’t worth one American dollar.
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Chris Satullo, a civic engagement consultant, is a former editorial page editor/columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a former vice president/news at WHYY public media in Philadelphia