Suffering Amid Disaster? Enter the Scorn Chasers

By JOHN YOUNG

In recent weeks we’ve seen a new breed of first responders when disaster hits. Not the fire department. Not the EMTs. Not the cops.

No, even faster are politicians misrepresenting facts and placing blame on whomever they can finger; facts be damned.

Hence, while we see the very best of humanity in the public servants risking their lives and in neighbors helping others, from brazen partisans who live to misinform, we see the very worst. Call them scorn chasers.

Extreme contrasts amid devastation:

Los Angeles resident Jimmy Kimmel tears up on-air amid the horrific fires: “Once again we see our fellow men and women coming together to support each other.”

Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio suggests California should not get emergency aid “without changing the policies that are making the problem worse.”

You mean science-denying policies that push the planet into atmospheric convulsions?

Then there’s the King of the Trolls, this week taking his social media trigger finger back to the Oval Office.

Yes, back to that jumbo TV screen – set on a single news channel — to take his policy and staffing cues from Fox Spews.

Then he can make sophomoric pronouncements amid tragedy like calling the governor of California “Newscum” while fires rage.

Or telling victims of Hurricane Helene that disaster aid wasn’t coming, that FEMA had exhausted its funds to support illegal aliens — a bald-faced, harmful lie that should disqualify a person from higher office.

Ironically, it was he who confiscated disaster aid dollars for the phony disaster declaration he used to finance a border wall.

For GOP scorn chasers in their rapid responses to the L.A. fires, “leadership” means ridiculous claims, like training ire at fire departments for somehow being crippled by diversity programs. That’s a racist crock, but it’s a Fox-ified GOP standard in these times.

Ah, but what about insufficient water in L.A. because of fruity Democratic policies? Not surprisingly, it’s a Fox-generated lie as well based on isolated instances where water hydrants and storage tanks were overwhelmed.

J.D. Vance waxed tutorially about a “serious lack of competent government in California,” sounding suspiciously like he knew what he was talking about.

Beware. Do not buy “good governance” from ideologues whose sworn mission is to eviscerate public services and to put profiteers in charge at every turn through privatization.

Republicans continue to live by the motto of Republican anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who famously said the party’s mission was to shrink government to the size by which one could “drown it in the bathtub.”

Glub. Glub. We saw the wages of said philosophy in Hurricane Katrina, where the federal response was a horror unto itself. Key to the disaster was a refusal to invest in dikes protecting New Orleans. You know – dreaded “government spending.”

Following through on another right-wing reflex: As Naomi Klein describes in her book “Shock Doctrine,” after Katrina’s devastation, Republicans sought to privatize every public function rent asunder by the storm – a classic case of capitalistic opportunism at the expense of public service.

Joe Biden would never, ever have even pondered taking a cheap shot at officials dealing with tragedy and disaster. But then, unlike his crass and calculating successor, Biden abided by his pledge to serve all.

The Troll King is about serving his petty interests and spawning conflict.

Fortunately, in California, amid surface differences that brazen partisans exploit, caring souls are helping one another and modeling amid the ashes what “community” means.

John Young is a longtime newspaperman who now lives in Fort Collins, Colo. Email jyoungcolumn@gmail.com. See johnyoungcolumn.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2025

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