Back when I was teaching political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy (and amazingly to me, a week from this column’s publication will mark 20 years since my retirement from active duty. Where the heck did that time go?) I used to teach my students about the Constitution, national security policy and little things like what their oaths meant (hint: it wasn’t about personal loyalty to a president, but rather the Constitution and the country).

One technique I used to start discussions about policy issues was to ask the cadets to compare what countries are following which policies and see what we can learn from those actions. Specifically, I’d ask about nationalized health care. Most of the cadets, being largely conservative kids, opposed the idea of a national healthcare system, often without even noting the irony they themselves were in a national healthcare system called military medicine. 

To make the larger point, I’d start by asking things like, “if you had a pain in your belly, and 1,000 doctors said you have appendicitis and one doctor said it was just gas, would you think that one doctor had an insight the other 1,000 lacked? Or would you have the operation?” Similarly, I’d ask what they make of the fact nearly 100% of OECD nations provide universal healthcare and we don’t? I’d ask, which is more likely: all those European nations have it wrong and we alone figured it out or maybe we are the outliers?

Similarly, if we look at the actions of FEMA for example and we see every single president in the nearly half-century since the agency was created issued disaster declarations in a bipartisan manner but now President Donald Trump has decided  to only approve 23% of disaster requests from governors of blue states, while approving 89% of requests from governors from red states, shall we conclude every president since 1979 has gotten it wrong by being bipartisan in disasters and that has Trump stumbled on a truth that eluded Reagan, both Bushes and the rest?

No, of course not.

Trump has used his ability to issue disaster declarations (in other words, to bring vital federal resources to address the needs of Americans in profound crisis) to stab in the back those states whom he feels were insufficiently loyal to him, especially regarding the completely safe and exceedingly well-verified results of the 2020 election. Trump is actually making it three times harder for blue states to access federal emergency funds and resources than for his favored red states.

Let me state that again, clearly: Trump has turned nonpartisan disaster relief into a partisan tool to punish those whom he feels wronged him.

And guess which state got hit recently?

Yup, our Colorado.

As reported in Colorado Politics, in the wake of the terrible Aspen Acres and Gold Mountain fires we’ve requested federal help. Don’t get your hopes up, because Trump has previously turned down the last two requests for help here, for the Lee and Elk wildfires and flooding in southwest Colorado.

It gets worse.

A smoking gun memo was uncovered this month as part of a lawsuit in which we learned of an orchestrated effort within the Trump administration to “punish” Colorado for Tina Peters and other perceived slights against the man who thinks himself king and above the law. Primarily it appears the White House rage against the Centennial State comes from two things: the aforementioned Peters and mail-in voting (which Trump himself uses, apparently oblivious to the irony).

As a result, the Trump administration (I’m almost tempted to call it a gang or a junta or criminal band, based on the crypto corruption, but that must await another column), sought to attack Coloradans using food stamps, as well as rejecting a water project and seeking the destruction of NCAR, a vital national research lab. Petty and childish doesn’t begin to cover the vastness of this vile behavior.

I believe these types of actions are why so many Trumpers fear free and fair elections. I won’t call those folks Republicans, as they are not really Republicans. The GOP was an honorable organization, which I often disagreed with, but was made up of members who wanted what was right for the nation and not their own pocketbooks. I hope we see those types of Republicans arise post Trump. People like Bill Owens, for example and Mitt Romney will, I hope, return to the GOP leadership.

Elections scare the Trumpers because when the day comes a Democrat occupies the White House, the Trumpers are terrified that Democrat might decide to use some of the powers Trump grabbed for himself. Can you imagine, say, a President Pete Buttigieg agreeing with Trump he is above the law and deciding to weaponize the DOJ to go after his political foes?

We’ll see what Trump does about Gov. Jared Polis’ request for funds for the Aspen Acres fire. Perhaps the release of the totally not-remorseful Tina Peters will soothe Trump’s hurt feelings enough to allow for disaster relief here, perhaps not.

I’m not especially optimistic.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.