There’s nothing that isn’t the fault of Democrats, if you ask the far-right, and — in true Republican form — it turns out that even extends to acts of God.
Natural disasters aren’t preventable by human interference, but they are more easily controlled when proper infrastructure, planning, and quick action are implemented. In far too many instances across this, among the wealthiest nations in the world, we’ve failed to properly prepare for such disasters, and when they strike we’re left scrambling to save lives. We’re once again facing a mounting death toll in California as the Palisades Fire rages, and you can bet who Republicans are heaping blame on.
It’s become an annual talking point, over the last few decades, as fires, floods, hurricanes, and winter storms ravage our country and rob American citizens of their lives, livelihoods, and homes. Rarely is the blame thrust on anyone but mother nature herself, but when disaster strikes a Democrat-controlled area, that narrative suddenly shifts. Abruptly it’s the fault of leadership, not climate change, and people like Donald Trump and former Acting Director of National Intelligence of the United States Richard Grenell are happy to point the finger anywhere but inward.
Grenell wasted little time in shifting the blame for the Palisades Fire onto the “far-left,” following in the footsteps of far more relevant far-right figures. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump before him, it seems Grenell is hopping on the “Democrats can control the weather” train, and ing the unhinged masses who truly believe the left is wielding weather as a weapon against the right.
This is despite the fact that California is a notoriously blue state, occupied largely by those “coastal elites” the right loves to rail against. If anyone were to target California it certainly wouldn’t be the Democrats, but sure, “the far-left policies of Democrats in California are literally burning us to the ground.”
That’s what Grenell wrote in an outraged post to social media in early January, as homes were becoming ash across Palisades. He added a demand that Californians “stop voting for people who won’t use common sense water management and forest policies.”
That last bit is actually valid, but it ignores several things. For one, that fires have ravaged California for decades, including under Republican leadership. For another, it’s a natural disaster — yes, more could have been done to protect homes, but there’s no amount of preparation that can entirely prevent mass damage from something as devastating as the Palisades Fire.
None of that matters much to Grenell, the incoming Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions (whatever that means) for Trump’s second istration. It’s absolutely worthwhile to examine what can be done better in the future when disasters of this nature strike, but tossing around blame without any real substance helps no one. It just further divides people in the midst of a deadly crisis, and ignores the insidious threat that is climate change. But when you’re rooted in the party of denial and finger pointing, accepting the science isn’t really an option.
Published: Jan 9, 2025 12:24 pm