{"id":2212678,"date":"2024-04-04T03:14:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T07:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-ruling-class-screwed-over-manufacturing-towns-like-east-palestine-long-before-a-train-derailed\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T03:14:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T07:14:29","slug":"the-ruling-class-screwed-over-manufacturing-towns-like-east-palestine-long-before-a-train-derailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-ruling-class-screwed-over-manufacturing-towns-like-east-palestine-long-before-a-train-derailed\/","title":{"rendered":"Before a train derailed, manufacturing towns like East Palestine had long been mistreated by the ruling class"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-ruling-class-screwed-over-manufacturing-towns-like-east-palestine-long-before-a-train-derailed%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2212678&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>East Palestine,\u200d Ohio, situated near the \u2062state&#8217;s northeastern border \u200bwith Pennsylvania and around half an \u2064hour from \u200cYoungstown, embodies the consequences of deindustrialization. Once a thriving manufacturing\u200d hub, the village now reflects \u200ba mix of \u200cresidential and \u200bindustrial areas, with vacant manufacturing plants and closed-down businesses. The community, though\u2064 hopeful, faces challenges of economic decline and environmental hazards following a recent train derailment.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>FDRLST       <\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Even with all the attention it has recently received, following the first anniversary of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and President Joe Biden\u2019s much-delayed visit, East Palestine is easy to miss. Located directly on the state\u2019s northeastern border with Pennsylvania, a little over half an hour away from Youngstown, one could accidentally drive past its main access point were it not for a large, sun-faded sign beckoning travelers off State Route 14. \u201cEast Palestine,\u201d it reads, \u201cthe place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you follow the aforementioned sign down a fork in the road toward the village\u2019s downtown area, you will be greeted by what, at the outset, appears to be a typical farm-adjacent, rural community. Small to medium-sized single-family homes take the place of farmhouses; gravel driveways and tire swings replace corn fields and grain silos. But if you drive a little further, you encounter a part of America that is perhaps unlike any other yet somehow all too familiar to those who know the American Midwest.<\/p>\n<p>East Palestine was once known as a manufacturing hub. Today, the village is far from its industrial heyday \u2014 offering a unique glimpse into the generational consequences of American deindustrialization \u2014 but one can easily picture it as home to a thriving and self-sustaining community in decades past.<\/p>\n<p>Statues of the local school system\u2019s mascot, a bulldog donning an orange sweater, pepper the town. Murals commemorate fallen service members, and people walk to and from chain discount stores and fast-food eateries located between shuttered historic buildings and a closed-down community theater.<\/p>\n<p>The surrounding area appears to be equal parts residential and industrial. Suburban homes, awash in a sea of Republican campaign signs, are neighbored by industrial facilities and manufacturing plants, at least half of which were vacant, if not entirely defunct. Small, locally-owned shops fill the downtown storefronts, as do plywood and vacancy signs. \u201cEast Palestine Lives Matter,\u201d one reads.<\/p>\n<p>The people are friendly, like those of any midwestern small town. They are quick to share their ambivalence about the village\u2019s future. While strongly committed to their hometown and its people and institutions, many feel like they have received the short end of the stick.<\/p>\n<p>This is understandable because that\u2019s what has happened time and time again. <\/p>\n<p>In addition to the community being ground zero for an entirely avoidable chemical catastrophe that has imperiled the health of many and will likely continue to do so for generations, East Palestine \u2014 and countless other places like it \u2014 has been strip-mined by the prevailing ethos of the American ruling class. Prioritizing financialization over domestic manufacturing, the industrial engine of small-town America was shipped abroad piece by piece until virtually nothing was left.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever feelings one might have about free trade, NAFTA, et al., the objective reality is that it left the heartland without a vital resource upon which millions of people and thousands of communities depended.<\/p>\n<p>Relegated almost entirely to both our peripheral vision and hindsight, we consider the existence of places like East Palestine only when we are forced to think about them or stumble upon them by happenstance. We don\u2019t account for the village\u2019s median resident when we consider the needs of the average American; their community is too eclectic by today\u2019s standards. <\/p>\n<p>It reminds us of a time when people made things, and now we only buy and import things. But that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t real; that doesn\u2019t mean the people and their families there aren\u2019t good people. And it doesn\u2019t mean their suffering \u2014 be it caused by chemical exposure or America\u2019s warped economic priorities \u2014 is any less legitimate.<\/p>\n<p>In the brief moments that East Palestine occupies the political spotlight, we would do well to remember this. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @smlenett.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Samuel Mangold-Lenett<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>             <span>Visit on Twitter<\/span>            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/smlenett\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@smlenett<\/a>           <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image CreditFDRLST Despite recent attention post Norfolk Southern train derailment anniversary &amp; delayed Biden visit, East Palestine remains overlooked. Situated on OH&#8217;s northeastern border near PA, just over 30 mins from Youngstown, one could easily miss it while driving through<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1185,"featured_media":2212679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/East-Palestine.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/East-Palestine.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2212679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}