It’s bad enough that we have to brace for another hurricane in less than two weeks, but the specter of Donald Trump telling lies and spreading hate about Hurricane Helene turns one’s stomach. Most recently, he suggested that Biden and Harris were neglecting relief to North Carolina because of politics, that they had spent money on immigrants and had none left for hurricane relief and that they were not concerned because voters there were mostly Republican.
As to hurricanes at least, they come and are gone, but Trump is like a bad penny that will never go away it seems. The destruction that he leaves behind is far worse, especially in the long term. He is a wrecker who demeans and vindictively goes after real and imagined enemies, including those who served him and fell out of favor. Hurricanes, however tragic, are neutral in causing damage. They don’t play politics.
I’m having difficulty getting along with hurricanes. Where I grew up, the Mississippi River occasionally came over its banks but it didn’t completely shut things down or threaten lives. At Potlatch, in the north Georgia mountains, thunder storms could be scary and the tail end of hurricanes would sometimes wreak havoc with downed trees. But here on the Georgia coast, every year brings the hurricane season, June through November, which may or may not be disastrous and life threatening. Local authorities are still picking up debris and repairing damage from Hurricane Helene and here comes Hurricane Milton.
Hurricane Milton will pass. Donald Trump will continue to exploit hurricanes for political gain, cite conspiracy theories and spread hate without regard for those who died or lost their homes in Florida and the southern Appalachians. He will continue to profanely defile the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, and other immigrants as rapists, murderers, and terrorists. From now to the election, he will seek out ways to prey upon people’s suffering and human frailty to boost his candidacy. There is no end to his venality.