Some Things Just Can't Be Fixed

And that would appear to include the political career of Republican Michigan Governor Rick Synder. In an effort to staunch the political bleeding over the fact that the state did nothing while Flint residents were drinking toxic water, Snyder has released a flurry of emails, some heavily redacted, that show the contempt and disdain with which complaints about the water were being met.

Depraved indifference does not seem to be too strong a phrase to use in describing officials' reactions to the problem.

A top aide to Michigan’s governor referred to people raising questions about the quality of Flint’s water as an “anti-everything group.” Other critics were accused of turning complaints about water into a “political football.” And worrisome findings about lead by a concerned pediatrician were dismissed as “data,” in quotes.

It was not until late in 2015, after months of complaints, that state officials finally conceded what critics had been contending: that Flint was in the midst of a major public health emergency, as tap water pouring into families’ homes contained enough lead to show up in the blood of dozens of people in the city. Even small amounts of lead could cause lasting health and developmental problems in children.

Though Mr. Snyder issued the emails as part of an effort to reveal the administration’s transparency on the matter, the documents provide a glimpse of state leaders who were at times dismissive of the concerns of residents, seemed eager to place responsibility with local government and, even as the scientific testing was hinting at a larger problem, were reluctant to acknowledge it.

Perhaps the final words on this disaster should be left with Flint's mayor:

In Washington on Wednesday, Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, who was attending the Conference of Mayors, said such lead contamination would never have been permitted had Flint been a rich suburb.

Thus have been laid bare Republican sensibilities and values.