A Case For Government

In a rapidly changing world

President Biden inspects the damage of the wildfire on Maui. (Photo by Mandel Ngan)

In California and Nevada, government officials and emergency teams assess the damage from an unprecedented tropical storm. 

President Biden travels to Maui to meet with survivors and see the deadly devastation of the recent wildfire that left the town of Lahaina in ashes. 

Cities and states across the country are contending with the effects of this summer’s extreme heat, which has scorched wide swaths of the American South and beyond. Indeed, July was the hottest month on Earth since records have been kept. 

It is clear that we are living in a warmer — and more volatile — climate. And in order to adapt and try to mitigate further danger, we will need an active and engaged government, at many levels and in many forms. 

In the aftermath of earthquakes, floods, storms, and other disasters, the government often plays a pivotal role in recovery. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times considered the future of Maui by looking at Paradise, the Northern California town that was decimated by that state’s deadliest wildfire five years ago. It is rebuilding, with a lot of help: 

That Paradise exists today is due largely to state and federal aid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent millions of dollars and years cleaning up, and in 2019, the state worked to make Paradise and surrounding communities eligible for more than $500 million in federal funding to rebuild single-family homes in disaster areas.

In 2021, on the third anniversary of the fire, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced that it had removed tens of thousands of dead and dying trees and cleaned thousands of properties. In 2022, his office announced an additional $200 million in state block grant programs for recovery in Paradise.

Only governments have the resources necessary to rebuild at this scale — and on this long of a timeline. These efforts take years, and governments are expected to be involved throughout the process. 

But the government's responsibility is not just to come in after the worst has already happened; it is also to prevent damage and destruction in the first place. We pour billions of dollars into our armed forces and nuclear arsenal, hoping not to fight wars but to deter them from starting. Our government inspects our food, regulates our pharmaceuticals, issues building codes, investigates airplane crashes, and performs countless other functions, not only to understand when things go wrong but to try to keep us safe. 

And yet we are living in an era when one of our two major political parties has become hostile to the very idea of government, channeling a rhetoric and a reality that undercut our national well-being.

To be sure, there is waste in government (as there is in the private sector), and there are regulations that are misplaced, onerous, and unbalanced. Government involvement can be counterproductive in some areas. Indeed, an entrepreneurial spirit is an American strength. We should be consistently debating how, when, and where to deploy government resources. But none of these caveats invalidates the essential role that only government can play in tackling the climate crisis. 

We need a government that accepts science and the reality of human-induced climate change. We need a government willing to work with other nations to protect our Earth. We need a government committed to clean energy. We need a government that funds research and innovation. We need a government responsive to its people. We need a government that addresses the desperation of the most vulnerable. 

We need a government that understands we have no choice but to all be in this together. 

Republicans, looking for ways to attack President Biden, have been critical of his response to the crisis in Maui. It is fair that his actions and the efforts of the government come under scrutiny. And it is in the nature of politics that these criticisms would take on a tone of electioneering. But from Trump to other would-be party leaders, the main line of attack is a matter of words, not deeds — what The New York Times characterized as Biden’s “not saying enough publicly.”

Even some of Biden’s supporters wish he had offered more words of comfort and concern in the days after the fire. And it is true that every president must sometimes serve as “consoler in chief” — a role Biden usually fulfills admirably and with ease.

The White House counters criticism by insisting that Biden has been very engaged in this crisis from the beginning. State and federal elected officials from Hawaii have generally given the federal response high marks (although it should be noted they are almost all Democrats). But it is also telling that Republicans are focusing on optics and not operations. The disingenuousness is breathtaking. What Hawaii, this nation, and this world need is not more speeches. We need action. On the climate. Immediately.

Even as Republicans flock to TV news and social media to publicly attack Biden, they are working to privately undermine the significant climate efforts his administration has made, including the groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate legislation in American history. The Heritage Foundation recently released its “Project 2025,” which The New York Times called “a conservative ‘battle plan’ for the next Republican president.”

The article summarized the plan’s recommendations:

The plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels — the burning of which is the chief cause of planetary warming. 

If implemented, this plan would be an unmitigated disaster. It would contribute to an untold amount of pain, suffering, and environmental harm. It is a missile meant to destroy a governmental response to the climate crisis. And it exposes the hypocrisy of the Republican attacks on Biden’s response to Maui. 

We need the government fully engaged to address arguably the greatest threat we face as a nation and a planet. Government is not the only answer. But it is part of any answer with promise. 

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