https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/us/hurricane-dorian.html
Hurricane Dorian is, at the time of writing, a category 5 storm that is ravaging the Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph and a possible route at mainland US, starting with Florida and moving up the East Coast, although current forecasts explain it is too early to call. Dorian only glanced past Puerto Rico, but still gave the US territory a lot of fright, as the residual impacts of Hurricane Maria are still fresh in many Puerto Ricans' minds. My cited NYT article reported that a regional suicide prevention center that saw an extraordinary increase in demand, from 8 calls a day to 282.
The US Virgin Islands were even less fortunate. A PBS News Hour explained that Dorian caused widespread damage, leading to power outages in schools, public facilities, and some neighborhoods. In addition, in this NYT article, Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ delegate to Congress, said that "Although this is not a large hurricane, we’re in such a compromised position as it is."
Finally, Florida, 12 counties in Georgia, and North and South Carolinas have declared states of emergency and began evacuation plans for certain regions. While this tragedy is heartbreaking, it's also important to evaluate and criticize the key features and flaws in the American government for better future governance.
It's important to note that the establishment of the concept of federalism and states' right and obligation of management is still in play, and, in this case, particularly useful. Local newspaper Orlando Sentinel reports that Florida governor Ron DeSantis collaborated with the state's Emergency Operations Center and suspended tolls to help citizens evacuate, which supports active federalism's efficacy; having top-down leaders in each region is better for faster, more well-informed decisions and could be the difference between life and death.
What is perhaps more important, however, is the relationship, exposed by natural disasters, that US territories have with the mainland "legitimate" America. Puerto Rico, as a US commonwealth, and the US Virgin Islands, as a territory, seem to be very far removed from what "America" actually is, and their conditions reflect that; in fact, reports from NBC, Reuters, and other sources found that Puerto Rico received less and slower aid after Maria and other disasters. While the Founding Fathers did establish a mechanism to acquire land, which was put into use for the Northwest Territory, it was eventually to convert the land into states for the Union.
However, despite numerous referendums in Puerto Rico for statehood and reasons for why it would be beneficial to both sides, like this analysis that the economy would dramatically improve, America remains 50 states strong. Many US territories are stuck in limbo, and policy is creating politics in US thinking; these little islands don't deserve aid or special consideration or representation (oh the irony) because they aren't states.
Prompts:
- What are other examples of good and bad federalism?
- Is federalism a necessary evil?
- What do you think about Puerto Rican statehood?
3 comments:
It’s a rather sad and disappointing display to see the sidelining of emergency aid efforts to these overseas affected areas when compared to the amount of aid, as with the Florida example you mentioned, that continental American states receive.
While I don’t have an entirely positive outlook of the central government, I agree with your statement that the de-bureaucratisation of government allows, in theory, for officials to respond faster towards the public need, as it lessens the burden of the national government to single-handedly deal with the various issues of differing communities by allowing local authorities to cater, as with Commerce Clause[1] of the Constitution which relegated interstate trade affairs to Congress while leaving states to handle their own domestic intrastate trade. However, responsibility for actions regarding any affairs concerning the country must be taken in by one entity and the issue with the federalist appeal of de-bureaucratisation is that it leaves uncertainty as to which jurisdiction (national government or state government) should certain issues be under. An infamous example would be the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina which was described as having, according to the CATO Institute, “varying degrees of unfamiliarity with their roles and responsibilities”[2]. Correlating with the second prompt, it’s difficult to pinpoint, because I’m not clear as to what you refer to as “necessary evil” (and would like further clarification) but the decentralisation of government might be beneficial so long as its administration is efficient.
I believe that the admission of Puerto Rico as a US state is long overdue, considering the fact that Hawaii and Puerto Rico were annexed within the same year yet Hawaii achieved statehood, and would allow its residents all the benefits that entails with being a US state, notably effective representation in Congress. My only concern is regarding the implementation of the federal income tax in Puerto Rico, considering that 45.0% of the population lives beneath the poverty line.[3]
SOURCES:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause [1]
https://www.cato.org/blog/hurricane-katrina-remembering-federal-failures [2]
https://datausa.io/profile/geo/puerto-rico/?compare=united-states [3]
Statehood offers enormous chances to Puerto Ricans. The US of America is fundamentally the most extravagant nation on earth, and being a piece of it gives Puerto Ricans a great deal of pragmatic preferences that the autonomous nations of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean need. The privilege to move to the US-appropriate and work here legitimately, for instance, is incredibly significant and was even in when Puerto Ricans living in America were liable to impressively increasingly bigot separation. In addition, Puerto Ricans would get the privilege to cast a ballot in presidential races simply like some other state. However, there are impediments. The unemployed in Puerto Rico will in any event have higher welfare advantages to fall back on if statehood is in all actuality, which means cash will be lost to the US treasury. Indeed, even with the increase to the U.S. Treasury of expenses now not being paid by section 936 organizations, the CBO put the expense of Puerto Rican statehood as $9.4 billion in the initial four years. These costs do not include matters like government and court translation expenses should Puerto Rico declare itself to be a solely Spanish-speaking land. Nor does it include the costs to the U.S. Treasury of as many as seven representatives and two Senators whose continuance in office will depend on their pleasing an impoverished constituency. Legislation to increase federal spending on social programs of all sorts need not fail narrowly in either house of the U.S. Congress if Puerto Rico's delegation enters.
Source:
https://www.nprchamber.org/news/2017/7/31/how-a-puerto-rican-state-will-benefit-the-us
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/11/07/why-does-puerto-rico-want-statehood-anyway/
I find it interesting that there has to be an action done in order to suspend the tolls on the highways during a natural disaster but at least the tolls were lifted. The hurricane brings a situation that could potentially be life or death and having to pay for that inconvenience in a toll road seems a little bit absurd because the hurricane is forcing people to evacuate. Yet, to me the concept behind toll roads seems good, but in this particular situation, it becomes a bad idea which is why the governor made a good decision to suspend the tolls. This is good federalism just like Julian said above, and so is the state of emergency that the states can declare to gain additional help in response to the natural disasters. This makes sure that the government can use the power that it is given to help the people that give it power. Federalism sure has the potential to be bad and it definitely can be when people in power are not competent to wield such power, it also gives rise to abilities and facilities that are not available to us otherwise, like protection and the establishment of electricity. So, it seems that even though federalism can lead to problematic solutions, it is still needed by society to function better.
Source:
https://www.abcactionnews.com/weather/hurricane/tolls-suspended-on-these-highways-across-florida-ahead-of-hurricane-dorian
http://www.astho.org/Programs/Preparedness/Public-Health-Emergency-Law/Emergency-Authority-and-Immunity-Toolkit/Emergency-Declarations-and-Authorities-Fact-Sheet/
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