Koan, In a situation like this there MUST be a centralized response. I disagree. This is not a war where we fight against armies of foreign powers.
I believe the first responders should always be at the state and local levels. California, for example, can respond to local crises faster and with more applicable knowledge than the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
Imagine if Gov. Newsom, for example, waited for instructions from the Trump administration before calling for a statewide "stay at home" directive.
Imagine if Dr. Sara Cody, the public health officer of Santa Clara County, was incapable of calling for the nation's first "shelter in place" order because she was too reliant on the federal government.
If either of those two Californians hadn't acted on their own, if either of them decided, "Well I can't do shit until the Feds say something," we in California would be in deeper doodoo than New York. (California right now "only" has 12,000 cases vs. over 100,000 for New York.)
The role of the federal government should be support and resource management. They need to remove logistical barriers, provide funding and critical supplies wherever there are shortages, and reallocate resources from where they are plentiful to where they are vitally needed. But the primary decision-makers have to be at the state and local levels.
I believed this ever since Hurricane Katrina of 2006, where the failures of Louisiana were blamed on Bush and FEMA. I believe it today because of my strong belief in federalism. A nation of 320 million people, all of whom come from an incredibly diverse set of backgrounds, cultures, and geographies, has to be managed in a decentralized manner.
Tenchusatsu |
