As I take computer in hand this week, there’s a blue sky and sunshine in Georgia. Alas, that’s not the case just east of here. Hurricane Florence continues to gather strength and head for the joint Carolina coasts. Where the mighty storm actually hits the hardest is particularly important to me because my wife has spent time on sunny shores near Wilmington, NC all her life, and I’ve been privileged to join the festivities there since we got married.

At this stage of the prognostication, no one knows exactly where Flo will make landfall. Unfortunately, there aren’t many, if any, stretches of terra firma along the coast that aren’t populated. All anyone will say with certainty is that it ain’t gonna be fun wherever it strikes. And it’s not just the low-lying areas near the Atlantic. Inland isn’t being spared either. People in Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte, and even Asheville and points west are taking precautionary measures (i.e. there’s no milk, water, or bread left at Kroger).

The only thing that can be said right now without a shadow of a doubt is that someone, probably even a lot of someones, will blame the storm on Donald Trump. Now, love him or loathe him, surely that assessment of the situation is not entirely fair. My sense is the barometric pressure system that formed in the South Atlantic Ocean several days ago might have had something to do with the build-up of wind and rain bearing down on us. If anything, the mass of continuous hot air that emanates from Washington, D.C. in toto on a daily basis would have pushed the storm out to sea rather than attracting it.

Given the reporting of late by an anonymous source featured in the New York Timesand a couple of unidentified informants in recent books about the behind-the-scenes actions at the White House, surely there are those that will find a way to pin the big blow on the President. Just a cursory glance at history reveals this is not the first hurricane ever to hit the U.S. I don’t remember reading any other Oval Office occupant being saddled with blame. Oh, some former presidents were vilified for not responding quickly enough or with sufficient compassion for victims, but nowhere in the history books does it say an act of God was instead an act of a president.

You know if any sitting president were going to be blamed for a natural disaster, the obvious choice would have been Richard Nixon. Those of a certain age will recall he too had a detractor or two in the press. Hurricane Camille landed on the Gulf Coast in 1969, but not even Tricky Dick was censured for it.

Trump actually might take a small bit of comfort in the fact that Florence will undoubtedly knock the Times’story off the front pages. There were allegations in it and other mass media outlets that The Donald might possibly be quite schizophrenic and that the Cabinet had met to discuss invoking the 25thAmendment to the Constitution and removing Trump from office. Vice president Mike Pence, who obviously has the most to gain from such action, has put a vehement kibosh on the whole episode.

Maxine Waters has yet to yell, “Impeach 45!” this month, but it’s early yet. Depending on the severity of the storm damage, I’m thinking the spinmeisters will give her some ammunition.

Imagine for a moment that you yourself were Donald Trump. (I know, that’s like the worst Halloween fright some people can think of, but bear with me.) If you knew there were a mole inside the White House, with apparent access to some pretty high-level meetings, wouldn’t you be afraid to say anything? Even if you innocently opined, “Gosh, it’s nice to see the sun out today,” the remark might be leaked to the press as, “Trump cries ‘rain, rain, go away, come again another day’ while cornfields in Iowa dry up.”

None but a few are able to know precisely what goes on behind closed doors at the White House. If any of the assertions made of late are valid, I’m pretty sure we’ll get the truth sooner rather than later. But for now, when a disaster-in-the-making of the magnitude of Florence is in the offing, perhaps we should all take a breather from partisanship. There are a lot of people who are going to need a lot of help. And a sitting president can provide beaucoup amounts of that. There’s plenty of time to get back to the bashing once the storm is spent. For now, we kinda need to stick together.

 

©MMXVIII. William J. Lewis, III  –  Freelance writer