We the People can count on each other, but not the feds

One of the most frequent complaints about contemporary American politics is how contentious and divisive our political discourse has become. For years, we’ve read articles about how disagreements over politics are dividing colleagues at work, poisoning friendships, weakening familial ties, spoiling holidays and even ending marriages.

A 2021 poll by the Survey Center on American Life revealed that only 15% of those surveyed had actually ended a friendship over politics. But political persuasion mattered. Democrat/progressive respondents were nearly three times more likely than Republicans to consider a friendship ended because of politics. Liberal women were the most strident on the matter, with fully one-third reporting that they had ended a friendship because of differing political perspectives.

Former President Donald Trump’s entrance onto the political stage has played an outsize role in this dynamic. Trump is a polarizing figure, no question. But Trump is only a symptom; the real cause of the heated rhetoric around all things political is the explosive expansion of the federal government’s powers into every aspect of our lives.

It’s quite simple, really: The more control the federal government has, the more it matters who controls the government. So, for those who’d like to keep relationships untainted by political disagreements, containing federal power has benefits above and beyond constitutional consistency.

Recent events provide additional evidence that we do better when we rely less upon the federal government.

The Maui wildfires of August 2023 are said to have been caused by a combination of drought, high winds and downed power lines. For some reason, the civil defense sirens did not operate, and residents were told to shelter in place. But by the time people realized they needed to evacuate, routes out were limited and quickly blocked by traffic. As fires spread to the roads, people either left their vehicles and jumped into the ocean or burned to death in their cars. More than 100 people died, and thousands of buildings – mostly homes – were destroyed. Many owned their property debt-free, without mortgages or casualty insurance, and do not have the resources to rebuild homes worth millions in some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave each family $700. Despite promises of significant federal assistance, locals reported that most of the help they received was from “neighbors, local businesses and community groups.”

Earlier last year, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, catching fire and releasing toxic chemicals into the air and groundwater. It took two weeks for any member of the federal government to visit the site. President Joe Biden did not visit until over a year later. A whistleblower within the Environmental Protection Agency accused the agency of deliberately covering up evidence of the release of toxic chemicals. Residents claim to be suffering from serious illnesses and are still waiting for the resources they were promised for long-term health monitoring.

Hurricane Helene smashed into the southeastern United States two weeks ago, killing more than 200 people and causing tens of billions of dollars in property damage across multiple states. FEMA has offered $750 to those affected; but you have to apply for it.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was quoted as saying that FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through (hurricane) season.” (And at this writing, Hurricane Milton is now hitting the Gulf Coast of Florida.) But Americans have noted – bitterly – that FEMA spent more than $1.4 billion on transportation, food, clothing and shelter for illegal aliens over the past two years.

To add insult to (literal) injury, those struggling in the aftermath of these domestic disasters have watched as $175 billion has been given to Ukraine. And last Saturday, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris posted on X that the government would be sending $157 million to aid Lebanon – a country from which terrorist organization Hezbollah has been shelling neighboring Israel for the past year.

Lacking significant federal help, private citizens have been volunteering their time, donating money and resources, and flying their own helicopters into affected areas of North Carolina, Georgia and Florida for search and recovery efforts. (Even the beleaguered residents of East Palestine, Ohio, sent a truck filled with hurricane relief supplies to North Carolina.)

One would think that government officials would be grateful for the backup. They certainly haven’t acted like it. One chopper pilot was forced to abandon stranded hurricane victims he was attempting to rescue when he was threatened with arrest. Debris haulers in Pinellas County, Florida, were turned away from local landfills, told that FEMA regulations prohibited taking the rubbish caused by the storm, and instructed to dump it back onto people’s driveways so that FEMA could pick it up within the next year.

Americans are outraged. One incident would be appalling enough. But multiple such instances create the impression that the government does not care about American citizens, except to take our taxes and dole out benefits to everyone else but us.

Indeed, this administration’s policies and practices have been so wantonly unhelpful that some observers are speculating that assistance is being slow-walked to rural North Carolina and northern Florida because those are “red” areas where residents will vote for Trump – if they can make it to their polling places, that is.

Such speculations sound less wild-eyed when Democratic strategist David Axelrod opines on national television that “upscale,” “liberal” voters in deep-blue Asheville are “probably going to figure out a way to vote,” while Trump voters in the red, western part of the state are less likely to. “I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere … are going to be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign,” Axelrod said, adding that this situation made the presidential campaign in the state “a little more interesting.”

It’s clear that Americans can and should count on each other in tough times. But the federal government? Not so much.