Leadership Versus Pettiness and Spite

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

"Idalia" has intensified into a Category 4 hurricane and will be coming ashore in the Big Bend area of Florida sometime this morning.  It's a big damned deal!  Some low areas that are normally dry are going to be inundated with up to fifteen feet of water.  Homes and businesses are going to be blown away and washed away, and, most importantly, people are going to die.  The devastation is going to be massive, and the state of Florida, which leans strongly Republican and has one of the most repressive state governments in America, is going to have its hand out to the federal government, a political apparatus currently controlled by the Democratic Party.   Florida will be asking for personnel, equipment, and funds to help in relief and rebuilding - and the federal government, which represents every state in the union and not just the ones that voted for their guys, will respond positively with military aid, money, supplies, and massive amounts of general assistance - as it should.

That is the purpose of an overarching federal government.  It is there to protect and assist all of us in our daily lives regardless of our political leanings, religious beliefs, skin color, or even who we love.

Joe Biden has already sent federal support to Florida and he has publicly told Florida's governor, a politician who is running for Biden's job, that the government of the United States of America is ready and eager to help in the relief and recovery that will be necessary in combating the devastation of Idalia.

That is leadership.  Biden has his sleeves rolled up and is saying that the rest of us are here to help Florida.  Politics do not play into his equation.

But it wasn't that way in the previous administration.

Donald Trump had an evil habit of gauging emergency responses to the political support that the affected states had given him.

That approach was not leadership, it was spite.

Trump's former Chief of Staff for the Department of Homeland Security Miles Taylor described Trump's presidency as one that was "terrifying" and did "active damage" to US security.  In discussing the wildfires that ravaged California during the Trump administration, Taylor, the former Trump official, is quoted as saying:

"He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the State of California didn't support him and that politically it wasn't a base for him."

 

Compare that to the Biden team's on-going response to the inferno that consumed much of Maui.  

But with Trump the response was always political, and often spiteful:  Here is a tweet that he put out himself in response to the California wildfires:

"Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!"

Joe Biden didn't threaten or harass Florida as Hurricane Idalia approached.  He told the governor, a political opponent, that the federal government was ready and eager to help.

Biden acts, while Trump whines and threatens.  One is leadership and the other is just pettiness and spite.

United we stand, divided we will definitely fall.