While there are more exigent matters in Washington, DC at the moment, a development this week has been an attempt to impose an ideology of Kinder, Küche, Kirche on transportation funding.
If you had any doubts, it's happening.
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| September 9th, 1936 (with an edit) See also the editorial, Sept. 13th |
When an unelected oligarch with private security and technical forces is taking over central government computer systems, the Department of Justice and FBI are undergoing purges, appointments and orders and actions constitute a blitzing vandalism on state capacity, databases and document libraries with years and decades of research are being scrubbed, and the flurry of those executive orders attempts (perhaps successfully!) to circumvent the legislative process, we have names for all that.
Conspicuously, the press is avoiding naming what is obvious. The front pages talk around the nub of the matter, framing things as minor deflections from norms, hardball gamesmanship, division rather than bipartisanship, and not the shattering of norms in any kind of coup.
It's all too much, but maybe we can understand a little in our focus area of transportation.
This past week the US Department of Transportation published documents that attempt to impose eugenics, segregation, and patriarchy on funding.
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| Eugenics in an order |
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| Memo for climate denial, jim crow, and patriarchy |
Eugenics, climate denial, jim crow, the patriarchy — the reactionary, fascist package is all right there. "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" might seem like an exaggeration, but that's really the revanchist game plan.
ODOT is struggling to absorb this. Though they've been updating their page discussing the "hold" in Federal funding, they are silent on the ideological underpinnings of it. |
| NY Times - via Bluesky |
The NY Times frames it, or zeros in on a part of it, as an attempt to cancel sanctuary cities and impose exclusionary policies. But there is so much more.
In the latest CIP it looks like 16% of transportation funding over that period comes directly from the Feds.
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| From the 2025-2029 CIP |
The McGilchrist project is included in the RAISE grant amount, but the Front Street study does not appear to be included. Theoretically projects with formally "obligated" funding should be protected, but the new regime is sure to attempt a broader range of claw-backs and cancellations. They will make things messy and difficult.
There will obviously be a lot more to say on this later as things develop and better information comes out.
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