Opinion Brief

Why does the right wing hate trains?

Republican governors are turning down stimulus money for rail improvements, and the GOP wants to defund Amtrak. What's going on?

What do conservatives have against rail travel, asks Dave Weigel at Slate. Republican governors like John Kasich (Ohio), Scott Walker (Wisconsin) and Rick Scott (Florida) have all rejected stimulus funding for high-speed rail projects since being elected last year. The Republican Study Committee now wants the government to yank funding from Amtrak, and the president's $53 billion proposal to boost high-speed rail has been met with a chorus of boos from the opposition. Why exactly does the right wing hate trains?

The Right considers trains a poor investment: Conservatives don't like trains for economic reasons, says Megan McArdle at The Atlantic. Put simply, rail is never going to work at "anything close to a decent cost-benefit ratio in most of America." Not enough people will ride them to make the numbers work. Rail advocates say that if you build it, passengers will come. But conservatives rightly think that spending "tens of billions of dollars" on a risky proposition is a bad bet.
"Why do conservatives hate trains"

The Right thinks trains will turn us into socialists: Yes, rail projects can be dismissed as risky investments, says Weigel at Slate. But there's also a more complex, "cultural" reason why conservatives dislike them. They believe the primary reason liberals want to fund train travel is to "change [Americans'] behavior," towards a collectivist, European-style society where we all ride trains together.
"Why do conservatives hate trains so much?"

The real question is, why do liberals love rail? I find it hard to understand why liberals are so wedded to "a technology that was the future two centuries ago," says George Will at Newsweek. Perhaps it's because trains diminish Americans' individualism. Rail, with its timetables and fixed routes, requires pasengers to show "the deference on which progressivism depends." Meanwhile, the automobile allows them to roam free, "unsupervised, untutored and unscripted." Isn't that the American way?
"High speed to insolvency"

Recommended

Nvidia joins the trillion-dollar club
Nvidia
Feature

Nvidia joins the trillion-dollar club

When corporate pride goes south
Protestors and Pride merch at Target
Briefing

When corporate pride goes south

A terrible time management idea
An hourglass on a office table.
Feature

A terrible time management idea

Zoomers at work
Man on phone in an office.
Briefing

Zoomers at work

Most Popular

Is Trump's wall working?
International Border Wall Between Tecate California and Tecate Mexico.
Briefing

Is Trump's wall working?

Can Chris Christie make a comeback?
A black and white photo of Chris Christie waving
Profile

Can Chris Christie make a comeback?

YouTube to stop deleting false claims about 2020 election
The YouTube logo seen in London in 2019.
Reversing Course

YouTube to stop deleting false claims about 2020 election