Americans all over the country are seeing the pictures and video of the devastation left in the southeastern U.S. by Hurricane Helene. Entire communities were wiped out, and many people are still unaccounted for. But out of the horror we are witnessing is something amazing. Americans from all over the nation, from all walks of life, like those affected, are dropping their own lives and coming together to help their fellow Americans. Then again, maybe it's not so amazing. We are Americans, and that's what we do:
But there is something else going on, too. Something that isn't so good and pure as helping your fellow man. It is being seen and reported all over social media. While it is perfectly reasonable to doubt much of the veracity on social media, these reports are coming from not only people who are struggling to survive but also those who have managed to get into the area, some of which has been cut off. What is being reported is that the federal government, instead of showing up to assist, is hindering assistance from private citizens.
One man who owns a thermal drone planned to go to the area to help look for those who might be stranded and offer any other kind of assistance was told to stand down. Warning: The language in his video is salty, but that is understandably borne out of frustration. Another man who has come into the area to help says that local officials are leading them to a command post/"donation center," which is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which will not allow "boots on the ground."
There are stories all over social media saying that the government is nowhere to be found. In fact, people like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are turning them away.
Now, to make this nightmare even more nightmarish, on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that FEMA does not have enough funds to help hurricane victims because the government has spent billions on illegal immigrants and handouts to Ukraine. Wait what?
The Biden-Harris administration took more than a billion tax dollars that had been allocated to FEMA for disaster relief and used it to house illegal aliens.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 3, 2024
Now, they’ve abandoned American hurricane victims in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee.…
The people of the southeastern United States who were hit by the hurricane are obviously in a high stress situation. Their houses and communities are gone, everything they own is gone. They are not sure where their next meal and their children's next meal are coming from. That makes it a ripe environment for conspiracy theories to be born. But are conspiracy theories a lot like satire, in that there is a grain of truth to them?
At the risk of actually spreading conspiracy theories, the theory surrounding hurricane victims goes something like this: the federal government is intentionally slow-walking relief to places that are traditionally Republican voting areas. The theory being that the longer people are in need of basic supplies, the harder it will be for them to vote. Especially if there is actually no place for them to vote, it would be an added bonus.
Could there be something to it? Who knows. But at least one conservative talk radio host, Clay Travis, was not shy about, in so many words, putting it out there. Travis stated in part,
"Let me just say it out loud. I think if this were a blue area, that was overwhelmingly voting for Kamala, the federal response would have been far different."
.@ClayTravis: "Let me just say it out loud. I think if this were a blue area that was overwhelmingly voting for Kamala, the federal response would have been far different."
— The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (@clayandbuck) October 3, 2024
More in the podcast: https://t.co/hGBO5bBV8m pic.twitter.com/IzxDUhozdh
It may be an easy conspiracy theory to get to, but Clay Travis is not saying anything that others may be thinking and have just not said aloud. Again, who knows if this is truly the operating procedure of the Biden-Harris administration. But here is perhaps something they have not thought of. While the weather for the near future in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the hardest hit areas, will be tolerable, thankfully not 95 degrees in the shade, living without modern conveniences will begin to take its toll. People forced to live in an ongoing stressful situation are going to get more stressed. If we are talking conspiracy theories, is this, for some reason, by design?
When will all the countries we send money to... be sending aid for hurricane victims?
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 3, 2024
For those in the affected area, voting is the furthest thing from their minds right now. They are just trying to survive. But as long as we're talking conspiracy theories, what if, because of the treatment people are receiving at the hands of the federal government, places like Georgia and North Carolina "suddenly" are no longer swing states come November 5?
