Democrats should make Republicans own the coming disaster in Florida

Over the next few weeks Floridians are going to be forced to cope with the aftermath of what from all evidence looks like a massive, unprecedented disaster. Salvaging their shattered lives and homes will be paramount, and politics should be — and probably will be — the last thing on their minds.

But if the GOP’s response to Hurricane Helene’s devastation of North Carolina and other regions in the south provides any indicator, this nation’s politics is going to play an unusually large role in their ability to recover. So now, just before the hammer strikes, may be the best and only time to consider exactly what it is their elected representatives were hired by them to do.

The near-unified, considered Republican answer to Hurricane Helene’s carnage was to preemptively and immediately cast blame on the Biden administration, no matter how strenuous, thorough and ongoing the effort was by our federal agencies to alleviate --as quickly as humanly possible -- the monumental suffering caused by that disaster. Republicans were ready to do this even before the unfathomable toll of the flooding became apparent, and they did so, even as state governors uniformly praised the administration’s response.

Instead of joining in to actually help, to do something — anything — to assist those people whose lives were suddenly upended and wrecked by the massive flooding caused in Helene’s aftermath, Republicans, prompted by their leader, Donald Trump and assisted by his malevolent social media minions with a vested interest in his re-election, instead readied a noxious, six-day battery of relentless lies. First, the lie was concocted that Helene’s victims would only receive a $750 check from FEMA. This lie was duly spread through right-wing channels until it became an article of faith among Republicans, despite being debunked over and over again.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/8/2275347/-Democrats-should-make-Republicans-own-the-coming-disaster-in-Florida