Americans, individually and through their federal government, naturally will mourn the deaths of dozens of people and help their countrymen in Florida rebuild their lives, their properties and their state in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian.
It’s unfortunate, but in a nation riven by political storms, a massive natural one sometimes has the effect of reminding people that the United States is a singular entity rather than a loose collection of individual states.
That’s why Americans and the federal government rushed to the aid of Houston after massive flooding in 2019, which occurred amid irresponsible blather about secession among some leading state politicians.
And it’s why that same collective response already has begun to happen in Florida amid its governor’s, and its senators’, irresponsible blather about “socialism” in Washington and states with Democratic governors and legislatures.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who as a congressman in 2013 shamefully voted against disaster relief funding for New York, New Jersey and other northeastern states in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, called President Joe Biden as Hurricane Ian approached Thursday, to find that the White House already had initiated relief efforts.
Numerous climate scientists have said that, while Hurricane Ian formed as many hurricanes have over the century, atmospheric warming that has caused a rise in ocean temperatures probably increased its power.
When asked in December whether Florida’s government would establish any policies to diminish the state’s carbon emissions that contribute to atmospheric warming, DeSantis replied that “we’re not doing any left-wing stuff.” Except, perhaps, asking for the very socialized federal disaster assistance that he voted to deny to northeastern states in their moment of crisis.
Hurricane Ian demonstrates that the United States must act like a great nation not only when responding to disasters, but governing beforehand in the interest of the nation rather than politically sliced and diced, fragmented, self-interested constituencies.
— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS
