Hurrican Ian is headed toward Tampa. All reports are that this will be a severe storm with widespread flooding in Seminole County. Thanks to global climate change, this storm, like many these days, will be stronger and more destructive than in previous years. We can expect that Florida Governor Ron Desantis will call upon the remaining 49 States to help him and fellow Floridians recover, his appeal to the Federal Government for emergency relief is inevitable.
I’m going to risk derision for asking this question: “Ron Desantis has made his stripes by disparaging the other states that make up our crumbling union. Why should people he routinely derides rush to his and his states aid?” He has spent the last year sticking his finger in our eyes, and telling us all the ways that we suck. His scheme to send Texas migrants to Massachusetts is a good example.
Like all the other blow hard Republican State leaders who HATE the rest of us who live in blue states, Desantis thinks it is funny to shove our faces in it. Why then should I give a damn about what happens in his State? Florida is far richer than my little New England state. Floridas yearly budget is larger than my states entire GDP. But he will come and ask for our help. Last week he was enjoying sticking it to folks up north. Now he expects that we will overlook all of that to help his constituents. And we will, because we are better than that, and we know that everyone in Florida does not like or agree with their governor.
America’s irony writ large is that the Governors of States most likely to be harmed by global warming are the same governors fully committed to climate change denial. These folks are the same folks who routinely vote against legislation to reduce the effects of climate change. (Im looking at you Florida and Texas.) It is so expedient for them to dismiss us and our “crazy” ideas about climate, and yet it is their states who will likely face the worst outcomes. At some point, there will not be enough resources to fix what is broken. At some point in the future, a large percentage of Florida Real Estate will lie beneath the clear blue carribean sea. Ditto Arizona. Arizona is the epicenter of trumpist MAGA nuttery. That State will completely run out of water in the coming decades, and yet they still issue permits for thousands of tract homes every year. They will make money in the short term, and expect all the rest of us to solve problems when they emerge.
Conservatives hate and deride Joe Biden with a passion. Still, they expect that when the moment comes, all will be forgiven. And it will. And just as soon as the trouble is past, we can expect DeSantis to resume dumping on us, our states, and the people who clean up his messes. But for today “National Unity” will be everyones mantra.