'It's Just Too Much': A Florida Town Grapples With a Shutdown After a Hurricane

[PunkinPi]

If nature can be blamed for creating the first financial hardship, the second is the result of the even less predictable whims in Washington: President Trump warned last week that the shutdown might last “months or even years.”

In Florida, where Republicans dominated the November midterms and the state’s only Democratic senator went down in defeat, conservative towns like Marianna — along with farm communities in the South and Midwest, and towns across the country that depend on tourism revenue from scaled-back national parks — will help measure the solidity of public support for Mr. Trump and his decision to wager some of the operations of the federal government on a border wall with Mexico.

Jim Dean, Marianna’s city manager, said he had already been concerned, even before the shutdown, that the hurricane would prompt public agencies to consider reducing their footprint in the region. What if an extended shutdown contributed to keeping the prison closed indefinitely?

Though Mr. Trump said on Twitter over the weekend that “most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats,” that is far from true in places like Jackson County, Fla., where Marianna is the county seat. It is a Republican bastion so deeply conservative that it was illegal to sell liquor by the drink until November 2017. The president and his plan for a wall along the border are popular here, as they are across much of the state, which might explain why Florida Republicans in Congress have done little to pressure party leaders in the Senate to put an end to the shutdown.

More here --> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/florida-government-shutdown-marianna.html

The defining quote from article...

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"Deplorable" wasn't nearly strong enough.

[zipplewrath]

1. Being mean was the point

It was pointed out during the whole "take children from their parents" schtick, that the pain and suffering were the very feature that his base was looking for. It had nothing to do with border security and everything to do with treating these dark skinned people horribly.

[woodsprite]

2. I love to go to FL to collect seashells,

but we always make sure to the leave the nuts behind (9 family members - we don't travel with them OR stay with them at the in-laws).

Every single Trump voter in my life feels exactly the same as Ms Minton. I thought they were better than that, but definitely not. I don't know what makes a person that mean and hateful, yet they claim to be good "christians". When my SIL and MIL started spouting off about the wall over our family xmas visit (to FL), I kept my mouth shut out of respect for my FIL and silently repeated this mantra in my head: "consider the source, consider the source..."

Thank the powers that be that my husband didn't turn out that way. My FIL has always been the moderating force in their family but sadly, he is succumbing to Alzheimers.