Anti-deliverism
By 
I’m afraid we have yet another case of Trump voters getting the Unitary Executive good and hard:
More than two months after the devastating flood swept through Westernport, its mark remains on the small town of about 1,800 residents.
Cars inundated with water during the flood sit abandoned along Maryland Avenue, their doors and trunks left open to reveal interiors splattered with mud. One of the town’s emergency access roads is blocked by piles of gravel at both ends of the street, placedthere after a resident’s truck fell into a crater under the pavement. Many residents lost their washers, dryers, water heaters and furnaces when their basements filled with water, and they can’t afford to replace the expensive appliances — especially not all at once.
Westernport town administrator Laura Freeman Legge said she estimated the town’s damages at $10 million, not including the damage to peoples’ homes and personal property. For a town with an annual budget of about $2 million, many repairs will need to be put on hold, potentially for years.
On Wednesday, the town suffered another hit. The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied a request for $15.8 million to make repairs across Allegany and Garrett counties. The decision came as a shock to local leaders, who said that even after the agency disqualified millions of dollars in damage from the request, the county and state still met thresholds to qualify for assistance.
“We met the criteria,” Westernport Mayor Judy Hamilton said. “So, we’re confused, and we don’t understand why we were not given the FEMA assistance.”
Many people in the area affected by the flood said they felt like the FEMA denial was politically motivated, because Maryland is a Democratic-run state. But Allegany County, which sustained the lion’s share of damage from the Georges Creek flood in May, is one of Maryland’s most conservative communities. Republican voters outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1 in the county, and the region’s elected representatives in state government — Sen. Mike McKay and Del. Jim Hinebaugh Jr. — are both members of the GOP.
“Even though Maryland is a Democratic state, up here they’re not. They voted red. And I think that’s where the frustration for the residents is,” Hamilton said. “Now they feel like the president has turned his back on them.”
Federal funds from FEMAwould have helped pay for repairs to critical infrastructure. Since the flood the Allegany County-managed sewage system has been leaking into Georges Creek, which feeds into the Potomac River. Asphalt roads in Lonaconing and Westernport were washed away, gas lines ripped up and storm drains blocked by debris.
In Westernport, the town’s fire station, town hall, elementary school and library were all severely damaged. The town hall has reopened and fire station repairs are underway, but the library, which lost all of its books when a wave of water buckled a door and window, is still boarded up.
As we discussed earlier today, it is not actually illegal for voters in places like western Maryland and central Texas to notice that Trump is flatly lying when he pretends to care about them. They’re allowed to notice that Democratic governments provide them with healthcare and Republican governments close their hospitals. One could even start thinking about the incentive structure certain patterns of voting behavior create. This is not, to be clear, saying that the voters in this community had it coming — Harris would have sent the assistance and of course she would be right to do so — but Republicans certainly have no reason to care about the interests of anyone but their most powerful donors.