Harvey wasn’t Katrina, because geography didn’t make southeast Texas the deathtrap that New Orleans was. Nevertheless, Harvey will have a significant impact on our politics, as follows:
1. There are potential benefits to strong leadership. Not botching the response to Harvey, which would include defaulting on the debt or shutting down the government at a time of crisis, would be a nice start for Trump and the GOP. You wouldn’t think that would be a lot to ask, but it’s 2017, after all. . .
2. Rugged individualism, as a political credo, doesn’t get you very far after a hurricane. Republicans can expand the government to fight wars without looking like hypocrites because swagger is such a big part of their identity, but they struggle to deal with recessions and environmental disasters. And so, you have the spectacle of Ted Cruz begging for money from the federal behemoth he so purports to despise.
3. What’s the price of climate change? If you just had your house ruined by Harvey, how do you feel about the notion that your loss is the price that has to be paid for others to continue to enjoy the benefits of a fossil fuel economy? Is the GOP going to come right out and tell people a measure of annual hurricane damage is OK if it means a few GOP voters in West Virginia get their coal mining jobs back? Not bloody likely. That’s why it’s just easier to deny climate change altogether; the alternative of admitting a problem and doing nothing to solve it is politically unpalatable.