Railing about socialism takes a vacation in Florida in wake of Hurricane Idalia

This is a terrible time of year for Floridians to be critics of big-government socialism.

Just ask Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who took valuable time away from his woke-a-dope presidential campaign in distant lands to visit Florida due to Hurricane Idalia.

Florida hurricanes put Florida governors in direct phone contact with the president. That’s because there’s a huge transfer of federal dollars involved — mostly dollars collected from taxpayers in other states.

It’s the kind of socialism that doesn’t jibe with DeSantis’ “don’t tread on Florida” messaging.

DeSantis has been peddling the fiction that Florida is some well-oiled, self-reliant island of good governance while the federal government is an unwanted cesspool of frivolous spending led by President Joe Biden, a sleepy-but-evil hapless schemer who is holding down us go-it-alone Floridians with his fealty to socialism.

More: Cerabino: DeSantis: Proposed state license plate features warning to "out-of-state cars"

“Stop Washington — Save America” proclaims the coffee cups for sale by the DeSantis campaign.

Then a hurricane comes along and reality sets in, pointing out our glaring lack of bootstraps. Florida’s home insurance situation is in crisis, our lawmakers have self-limited themselves to being feckless culture-war errand boys, and our best hope is resting in a big-government socialized disaster program, and the allegedly hapless president who authorizes it for us.

Even before the winds of Hurricane Idalia had reached Florida’s Big Bend area, Biden authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to rescue Floridians affected by the storm.

“This morning, I spoke with Gov. DeSantis to inform him that we’ve approved the Emergency Declaration for Florida as they prepare for Hurricane Idalia, and FEMA has pre-deployed personnel and assets,” Biden tweeted in advance of the storm’s landfall.

“Florida has my full support as they prepare for Idalia and its aftermath,” Biden added.

Federal dollars were made available to pay for such things as $41,000 for individual home repairs, temporary lodging for displaced residents, replacement dollars for vehicles, furnishings, and appliances, and medical, dental and funeral expenses attributed to the storm.

Biden visited the state on Saturday, where he was praised by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott for doing “a great job” in quickly approving federal aid to Florida.

“It’s a big deal to these communities,” Scott said.

But Gov. DeSantis made a pretext to snub the president. I understand why. DeSantis didn’t want to be photographed standing next to Biden and admitting they were working together to solve a problem in Florida.

For starters, that’s no way to sell DeSantis campaign merchandise, which also includes a $20 onesie for toddlers that says “Joe Biden makes me cry.”

If you’re using toddlers to demonize the president, acting like an adult is already a lost cause.

So, DeSantis found it easier to pretend that Biden was just getting in the way by coming to Florida.

“In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts,” DeSantis’ spokesman Jeremy Redfern said in a statement.

It’s an odd position for DeSantis to take days after he criticized Biden for not rushing to Maui in the wake of the wildfires in Hawaii.

“Biden was on the beach while those people were suffering …,” DeSantis said during a Republican debate in Wisconsin. “As somebody that’s handled disasters in Florida, you got to be activated.”

It’s almost as if DeSantis is going out of his way to be a jerk about this. This brings up another uncomfortable bit of jerky-behavior history.

When SuperStorm Sandy hit the Northeast in 2012, then-Congressman DeSantis, auditioning as Tea Party renegade, was one of 67 members of the House who voted against paying some claims by New York and New Jersey residents.

“I sympathize with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid,” DeSantis said at the time. “At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible.”

That could come back to bite him If DeSantis took unscripted questions from reporters while standing next to Biden last weekend.

He might be asked why he isn’t advising Biden to deny flood claims to Floridians, like DeSantis advocated to residents of other states after Hurricane Sandy.

Awkward.

Or he could be asked about what he thinks about Biden pushing for $4 billion more in federal disaster relief to pay for the increased damage from wildfires, flooding and hurricanes attributed to climate change.

Which includes the damage from Hurricane Idalia. It went from a tropical storm to a dangerous Category 3 hurricane quickly due to the elevated water temperatures in the Gulf — a symptom of that climate change.

More: Algae blooms, record heat: Florida climate change puts us all in movie with bad ending

Not a happy subject for DeSantis, seeing as how he is a  climate-change denier.

“I’ve always rejected the politicization of the weather,” DeSantis said in a Fox News interview earlier this year.

Let’s face it, hurricanes are too real of a problem in Florida for a guy like DeSantis to address. He finds it much easier to pander to brute ignorance.

So, let's hope the remainder of this hurricane season will be kind to Floridians.

If for no other reason than to return Gov. DeSantis to where he belongs: In front of small groups of Republican voters in other states talking about how he crushed “woke” Black history, drag queen story hours, and other imaginary problems.

Frank Cerabino is a columnist at The Palm Beach Post, a part of the USA TODAY Florida Network.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: DeSantis avoids Biden, but not federal handouts for Hurricane Idalia