The paranoid fantasy world of the American right wing, Francis Scott Key Bridge edition
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A bridge collapsing after being struck by a massive out-of-control container ship is the opposite of a mystery, but wingnut conspiracy theorizing has never depended on any actual factual dispute:
Now, after the disastrous collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, MAGA figures and some GOP politicians are reviving that playbook yet again, in some cases with hateful, conspiratorial gusto. But this time the absurdities are of a next-level sort. That’s because the disaster, by severely hampering Baltimore’s port operations, is impacting regions and industries that rely on the port to export goods. Those include areas sometimes called “MAGA country,” places in the agricultural and industrial heartland throughout the Midwest.
In short, the Baltimore collapse demonstrates with unusual clarity that when it comes to calamities of this sort, we really are all in it together. That, of course, is exactly what the MAGA worldview seeks to deny at all costs—and is once again trying to do here.
This week, Pennsylvania GOP Representative Dan Meuser slammed President Biden for calling on Congress to fully fund the response to the Baltimore collapse. Meuser insisted it’s “outrageous” that Biden wants to fund repairs in their “entirety,” and even demanded that some of this money must be taken from “ridiculous EV expenditures.”
Presto: Meuser—who helped run Trump’s 2020 campaign in Pennsylvania and sowed doubts about Trump’s loss—converted the disaster into a zero-sum culture-war standoff between repairing essential transportation infrastructure and combating climate change.
Similarly, Representative Nancy Mace blamed the collapse in part on the “Green New Deal.” Mace insisted that too much of the bipartisan infrastructure law funded decarbonized and public transportation, supposedly taking money from “traditional roads and bridges.” Her lament is odd, as she voted against that infrastructure bill and all its spending on roads and bridges (while taking credit for funds it lavished on her home state of South Carolina).
This is all barking up the wrong tree. Everybody knows the bridge collapsed because it became too woke.