Donald Trump just gave Californians a chance to save high-speed rail.
Will we take it?
Of course, Trump offered this opportunity in a nasty way. He had the Federal Railroad Administration claw back $4 billion for construction, and declared that he had killed a “train to nowhere.”
Yes, I realize that taking billions from an underfunded project wouldn’t normally be good news. But we don’t live in normal times or a normal country. These days, many us are motivated to act just because our enemies hate the idea.
So, when Trump declares he is killing something, he is really offering a neo-fascist version of the biblical mark of Cain — a punishment that also confers a superpower. In Genesis, God banishes Cain for murdering his brother Abel, but also places a “mark” of protection on Cain so that no one will kill him.
Getting attacked by Trump delivers a similar protective mark — even a new lease on life. After the president cut Medicaid, the health program for the poor surged in popularity. When Trump blasted Europe’s progressive policies, more Americans sought to move there. And Trump’s lawless immigration raids inspired dramatic changes in public support for immigrants. A record-high 79% of Americans now call immigration a “good thing” for the country.
Now Trump’s mark is working its magic on high-speed rail.
After nearly two decades of indifferent pursuit of the project, the state’s leaders are rallying behind it. After Trump’s claw-back, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit demanding all $4 billion returned Gov. Gavin Newsom, long a skeptic on high-speed rail, now rallies behind it. The High-Speed Rail Authority, usually cautious politically, is blasting the Trump administration.
Such shows of support are, put simply, unprecedented. For all the Republican criticism of high-speed rail, state Democrats have long been its real opposition.
That’s because high-speed rail wasn’t a Democratic idea or a priority. Approval for the project came instead from California voters in 2008, thanks to a ballot initiative campaign led by the independent state lawmaker Quentin Kopp. Since then, California Democrats, who prefer funding social programs and union projects over infrastructure, have often quietly registered support for the project in public while undermining it in private. In recent years, legislative leaders have sought to repurpose high-speed rail funds for regional projects, especially in Southern California.
But high-speed rail has made real progress in recent years.
Construction on the first phase, in the Central Valley, has produced more than 50 new structures for the rail project. Officials completed environmental reviews on the 463 miles from L.A. to San Jose, electrified its Bay Area corridor (a prerequisite for high-speed rail service there), and began the process of laying track, with the railhead groundbreaking at Bakersfield. Trump’s current attack only highlights this progress.
Legally, California stands a good chance of getting the $4 billion back. Politically, Trump’s attack is an enormous gift. Backers of the project, long a punching bag for populists, now have their own populist target: the dictatorial president seeking to cancel America’s only public high-speed rail.
Already, state officials are putting Trump on the defensive. They say Trump is providing a gift to China, which built the world’s most robust high-speed rail network. They note that he’s hurting his own voters, by canceling a Central Valley construction project.
“Trump’s termination of federal grants for California high-speed rail reeks of politics,” Newsom said after the cancellation. “It’s yet another political stunt to punish California.”
But Trumpian punishment also opens new possibilities. With the incompetent and corrupt federal administration no longer involved, private investors might be willing to jump in. Recently the state has been discussing a $1 billion annual investment to inspire new public-private partnerships.
Polls now show support as high as 67 percent for high-speed rail — twice Trump’s approval rating in the state. Make this a contest between fast new trains and an aging autocrat, and California wins.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.
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