Crisis Leadership

Hurricane Ian Puts Florida Governor Ron DeSantis On The Spot: How Will He Handle The Disaster?

Ronald 4 Comments

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who clearly wants to be President of the United States, faces a major crisis that puts him on the spot!

How is he going to handle Hurricane Ian, with millions of his constituents in crisis?

And will he conduct himself properly in his dealings with Democratic President Joe Biden, who has been to the forefront of this crisis, even as it was developing?

This is a test case for crisis leadership, and arrogant, right wing demagogic Ron DeSantis is likely to cause controversy, and show lack of empathy, sincerity, compassion, and decency, since he has no element of any of these characteristics!

On the other hand, Joe Biden exudes empathy, sincerity, compassion, and decency throughout his nearly half century of political leadership.

This may well be the test of Ron DeSantis’s planned Presidential candidacy, as the likelihood is that he will fail miserably, but will blame others, rather than take responsibility for the reaction to this natural disaster!

Will he even show the kind of leadership that former Governor Jeb Bush demonstrated in numerous hurricane crises in 2004-2005 when he was in charge in the “Sunshine” state?

And short term, how will this horrendous disaster affect the Florida Governorship election, which is less than six weeks from now, and will Democratic opponent Charlie Crist gain an advantage?

Crist was lucky that there were no major hurricanes in the four years he was Florida Governor as a Republican (2007-2011).

This crisis will be a possible forerunner of a DeSantis-Biden confrontation in 2024!

BIG Government IS Essential In The 21st Century In Third Largest Nation On Earth!

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The tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has brought to the forefront a reality that many Republicans and conservatives have refused to recognize—BIG government IS essential in the 21st century in the third largest nation on earth, and we cannot go back to the past concept of small government, and leaving everything to Mitt Romney’s concept of privatization!

We are a nation of 315 million people and counting, and this is very different than when America was a nation of 4 million in 1790; or 31 million in 1860; or 125 million in 1930; or 200 million in 1970!

The states have proved over and over again that they are incapable of handling the issues and problems of their population, without assistance from the federal government.

It is time to say that states rights is dead, in the sense that states cannot be allowed to stand in the way of progress, cannot be allowed to dictate differing policies that affect the American people in a detrimental way!

The Civil War was fought over states rights, as one of the issues, and we have had problems with states rights advocates ever since, who choose to use state power to promote racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The time for state leaders to understand that such policies are no longer acceptable is now, at a time when states fully understand that it is the national government and its bureaucrats who are the only ones who can be relied on to deal with man made or natural crises.

The only thing that is obvious is that the BEST people must be hired to run federal agencies that deal with crisis, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that we must have Presidents who realize the need to prioritize such activities, rather than those, such as George W. Bush, himself incompetent, who allowed FEMA to fail to react properly to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, or his dad, George H. W. Bush, who failed to react properly to Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

This is proof that what we need in the Presidency is a person who understands the role and need for national government, not someone such as Mitt Romney, who only thinks of money and privatization every day of his life, and does not give a damn about ordinary people and the struggles they face every day of their lives!

We need a leader, such as Barack Obama, who has empathy and compassion and concern, not a plutocrat, who is only concerned about the power of the Presidency, and wants to bring us back to the Gilded Age, when we were a nation of 50 million people!

The need for government has been so well displayed now, that for anyone to advocate small government, and returning power to the corrupt state and local governments, or to privatization, needs to be repudiated in as strong a manner as possible!

Crisis Leadership: FEMA, Mitt Romney, And Partisanship Displayed

Ronald 5 Comments

This disastrous Hurricane Sandy has demonstrated already the difference in leadership of President Barack Obama and his Republican Presidential opponent, Mitt Romney.

Obama has conducted himself fabulously, and has been praised by Republican Governor Chris Christie for his leadership in the crisis. He has demonstrated a steady, calm, cool hand, as he always has in every tough moment of his Presidency, including the operation to eliminate Osama Bin Laden.

Meanwhile, we are reminded that Mitt Romney has advocated getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and farming its operations back to the state and local governments, and even promoting privatizing its activities. He constantly said this during the Republican primary campaign, as he rushed to please the far right wing of his Republican Party.

Now he is caught in a bind, and has avoided direct comment about the situation caused by Hurricane Sandy.

But he has also, this quickly, shown partisanship, instead of bipartisanship, by calling and consulting with Republican Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey, and Bob Mc’Donnell of Virginia, but NOT calling and consulting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and Delaware Governor Jack Markell, all Democrats.

This is evidence, and not good, that shows that Mitt Romney would NOT be a good crisis President, and would play political games, similar to what George W. Bush did with Hurricane Katrina, and the Democratic Mayor and Democratic Governor of Louisiana, and thus giving a bad image to FEMA, which had been effective before Bush, and is again under Obama!

FEMA can be effective IF we have the right crisis President, and the proper people put into the agency to operate it efficiently. And if there is a need to fund more money for FEMA, by raising taxes, so be it, as we cannot afford to leave the management of a natural or man made disaster to 50 state governors alone, and certainly NOT to private companies, whose only purpose is to maximize profits at the expense of their employees and the general public!