Not Good for the Gander?

It is easy to be a cynic today.  After all, there is so much to be cynical about that I assume I do not have to repeat the litany of candidates.

But one thing jumped out at me as I perused the day’s news (this was two weeks ago).  This from NBC:  

Mandatory evacuations were ordered in parts of Texas, and residents in Harris County, home to Houston, were told to be ready to stay put for days after heavy rain caused flooding.

Harris County Judge Linda Hidalgo, the county government’s top executive, declared a disaster Thursday.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered along the East Fork of the San Jacinto River, and residents were urged to leave before nightfall.

“What we’re going to see tonight and into the weekend will not be Hurricane Harvey, but we are going to see significant impacts,” Hidalgo said in a statement.

So, my question is this:  in a state where the Governor, the State Legislature, The Attorney General, and a fair chunk of the voting public give the literal and figurative finger to the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Disease Control, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the President of the United States, and all of us who masked up and got vaccinated to prevent ourselves and our neighbors from contracting COVID-19 – why are the Texans in Houston allowing their State Government  to tell them where to go and what to do just because it is raining cats and dogs?   Where is the outrage about this government interference in parental decision-making rights?  Where is the vitriol directed towards those government officials doing their job and trying to keep them safe?  Why are people not barging in on City, Town, and Village Council meetings demanding that the “gubmint” stay out of their personal decisions?

I tell you where it is – it’s nowhere.  Hasn’t and won’t happen.  Now why do you think that is?  After all, the estimates of deaths from COVID-19 were a severely underreported 1.1 million in the whole of the United States and more than 93,000 in Texas alone.  But weather-related deaths are historically only be a fraction of that. Even the worst hurricane in US history (Galveston, 1900) killed fewer than 13,000 and more recent hurricanes have resulted in even smaller numbers. Hurricane Maria in 2017 caused significant devastation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, resulting in at least 2,982 fatalities and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 led to approximately 1,800 fatalities.

Talk about government overreach – mandatory evacuation for what is likely to be way less than Katrina – and what is happening isn’t even a hurricane.  I mean, if 93,000 deaths in your state didn’t mean shit to you, why are you acquiescing to the government over this bit of rain?

Oh, and when the damage is over and they declare a disaster area, how many of these “keep the government away from me” anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-anything remotely compassionate folks are going to apply for Federal financial assistance?

I wonder what makes the difference in Texans’ reaction to a worldwide pandemic that kills millions and a heavy rainstorm likely to result in deaths measured in the hundreds even with evacuation? Apparently, in Texas for sure, what is good for the goose is not even considered appropriate for the gander.

Ponder that for a moment, will you please and ask yourself why?

My answer: it’s politics, plain and simple. Texans are not likely to vote for a Democrat Governor or Attorney General in the near future, so protesting the mandatory evacuation orders creates no political capital – there is little chance of using this event as a major piece in a culture war because the state is going to go Republican anyway.

So, no more bullshitting ourselves about the concern over government overreach, it really was not about that. It was about sticking their finger in the eye of “government”, kow-towing to Trump and his allies, and trying to make the “deep state” look it was an actual, and dangerous., thing.

This little thought experiment just strengthens my belief that the anti-vax/no mask crowd was mostly made up of our most execrable neighbors who demonstrated they really did not care if you lived or died as long as they could stick it to those they considered liberals. 

I am not sure I will ever be able to forgive them.