In East Palestine, Ohio, residents have complained of headaches, nausea, skin rashes and other symptoms following the early February derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals. A combination of Democrats, liberals and environmentalists have been vehemently critical of Norfolk Southern’s response to the disaster, arguing that the company needs to be way more proactive about a problem that it caused.

Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist famously portrayed by Julia Roberts in a hit 2000 movie, has urged the Biden Administration to “get more involved” in the crisis. To liberals and progressives —as well as some Never Trump conservatives — East Palestine is facing an environmental nightmare that merits a forceful, aggressive response.

But far-right MAGA Republicans who include Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk view East Palestine as a racial issue, claiming that Democrats are indifferent to the crisis because the town’s residents are mostly white. And liberal Washington Post opinion columnist […]