Why Texas And Florida Welcome An Active Federal Government

The Republican Party is unable to govern because libertarians in the party view the government as the enemy.  The party prospered during the Obama administration by doing whatever it could to keep the government from functioning.  Now that it controls Congress and the White House the anti- government wing of the party has forced Trump to rely upon Democrats to get anything done through his Republican Congress.  The natural disaster in Texas and the pending disaster in Florida has demonstrated how important an active government will be to their recovery.  Unfortunately, anti-government ideology, especially in Texas, made the disaster worse than it would have been if Houston had done a better job of regulating land use.  Natural disasters in Texas and Florida have also become more destructive over time because of global warming.  Libertarians,  have joined forces with the fossil fuel industry to prevent the government from doing what is needed to deal with the human contribution to global warming.  The libertarian gospel cloaks the narrow self interest of the energy industry with the garment of freedom which protects us from tyranny.  

This article makes a good case for a more active government to deal with a rapidly changing world.  Its hard to argue against that argument.  However, that argument assumes a good government that operates in the best interest of its citizens.  It has become much more difficult to attract and elect the right kind of people to government.  For example, too many of our elected officials ran for political office by denying global warming.  They did not get into political office by accident.  Donald Trump's decision to reject the Paris Accord was no accident.  It was an important part of his campaign platform because millions of Americans believe the propaganda produced by those with the means to misinform the public.  Donald Trump has proceeded to destroy the EPA, and he appointed a Secretary of Education who helps the Heartland Institute, which gets much of its funding from the energy industry, to distribute teaching materials to science teachers in our public schools which claim that the scientific community is wrong about the human contribution to global warming.  The Heartland Institute found three global warming denialists to make its case with specious arguments.  Their salaries came from funds provided by the energy industry and libertarians.