There is an old cliche about Republicans declaring that the government is too inept to help citizens and then setting about to prove themselves right. If one can ever get beyond Left versus Right, or Democrat versus Republican, we get down to a point where one is either competent or incompetent at running the machinery of government. There are a few areas that shouldn’t be partisan – natural disasters brought about by storms, earthquakes, and fires, along with attacks on the nation, whether terrorist, or espionage, etc. and these are occurrences when one just hopes to find a competent president and staff, given the response is to be about the same. President Donald Trump’s politicization of storm relief is the topic for another day. With respect to federal disaster relief, no one here should forgive him for leaving red states behind (Not unless we want blue states left behind), as he has in Mississippi, according to NPR and Rawstory. Now, local MAGA voters are getting a lesson in what happens when you vote your fury and not for a capable leader. They don’t see “America First.”
Despite the fact that Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves asked for a declaration of a federal disaster area on April 1st for tornadoes occurring in mid-March, there has been no response by the federal government. Local citizens have noticed. From a report in Rawstory:
“I know President Trump said that ‘America First, we’re gonna help our American folks first,’ but we haven’t seen the federal folks down here,” Tylertown, Mississippi resident Bobby McGinnis told PBS.
“I don’t know what you got to do or what you got to have to be able to be declared for a federal disaster area because this is pretty bad,” Tylertown resident Brian Lowery said. “We can’t help you because, whatever, we’re waiting on a letter; we’re waiting on somebody to sign his name. You know, all that. I’m just over it.”
Set aside for a moment that these people are the type who might have been cheering when Trump hesitated about sending relief to California. Their bigger fault is in simply voting their anger versus someone who can get the job done. After all, this guy was president before and couldn’t get an infrastructure bill passed even with a willing Congress on both sides of the aisle.
But even the incompetence isn’t the end of the story. There is a good chance that an otherwise capable administration wouldn’t be able to process the federal aid money (Along with officials out looking at projects), given all the cuts to FEMA that happened early in the year. If these people were cheering on DOGE – and they likely were – they shouldn’t be surprised that their money is coming late, if at all. “America First” doesn’t just apply to checks sent out but also to services and government attention. It sure sounds as though Mississippi is “last,” except it is not.
You cannot set about to slash every part of government, but then expect it to work as it always has. Now we see the federal government “not working.” According to Rawstory:
Mississippi isn’t the only ruby-red state that has been left in the lurch by the Trump administration. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) also applied for federal assistance after tornadoes tore through her state this spring, though FEMA denied both her request and her appeal of that rejection. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also used his allotted time for questioning during a recent Senate testimony by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to beg her to send aid to Missouri after the Show Me State experienced its own spate of deadly tornadoes.
MAGA should be furious. And, again – these are people who might’ve cheered when Trump left Blue States in the cold (Remember COVID? ‘It is a blue state governors’ problem’?) But this isn’t about red or blue, at least not when the job cannot even get done under Trump in the reddest of states. At that point, it comes down to nothing more than favoritism and competence. Is Trump ignoring poor Mississippi when he may have jumped to help rich West Palm Beach? Maybe so. But there is no doubt that this administration would have a hard time setting the clocks to daylight savings time if given the task, never mind efficiently handing out disaster relief.
It is no wonder that MAGAs are mad. One wonders if they will ever learn.
****
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and also on X at @JasonMiciak, and please follow me now on Bluesky.
Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month, and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula
FAF0
The FO stage.
Also: See Leopards Eating Faces memes.
But it doesn’t mean they’ll learn from it. Stupidity is strong in MAGA world.
“After all, this guy was president before and couldn’t get an infrastructure bill passed even with a willing Congress on both sides of the aisle.”
Um, Jason, before you can get a bill passed, doesn’t one have to come up in the first place? I don’t recall Drumpf pressing for any kind of an infrastructure bill actually coming up; sure, he kept talking about a bill but he never pushed for Congress to put one together, much less pass one for his signature. All Drumpf was interested in was those damned tax cuts.
That is my entire point. He had the biggest fish, smallest barrel, and couldn’t put forth a bill, nor spur Congress on to get one of theirs passed.
Incompetent.
jason
Missouri is getting the screws put to it too. All of a sudden Josh Hawley is all upset with Trumpty. My state of NC is purple, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans with Independents actually having a larger share than either major Party. However it’s so viciously gerrymandered as to have a badly unbalanced (in favor of the GOP) Congressional delegation and a super majority in both chambers of the state legislature. Although the margins have been 1-2 percent each time the last three Presidential elections this state has gone for Trump.
With the exception of Asheville the western part of the state is quite solidly GOP. It’s also the part that got devastated by Helene and Trump has pretty much told all THOSE Republican voters he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them.
Alas, human nature is a difficult thing to change. People HATE admitting they were wrong about something or someone, even if only to themselves. The human capacity for rationalization is truly astounding at times. So, while some are speaking up and complaining it’s going to take a LOT more Trump inflicted suffering for them to turn on him. However he seems determined to keep inflicting pain on even his own MAGAs so who knows?
Let’s have some noise to Senators over the provision in the Big Beautiful Bill that provides for $300m from the depleted FEMA budget to protect MaraLago until 2029. Modern Republican doctrine: “I’M OK; you can go and….