Midwesterners conveniently avoid thinking about all the farm aid they get from droughts and floods, or tornadoes. California pays far more into federal taxes than they get back.You could say the same about many parts of the country. Why to people build homes all down the coasts or in Florida at all given the horrendous hurricanes? The destruction in coastal states, especially Florida every couple of years. Some Insurance companies, (State Farm I believe for one) are no longer doing home owners in Florida. In some Midwest states like Iowa, Illinois and Missouri people build their homes too close to flood plains because of the great farming in the old river bottoms. Flooding has become a major issue because of poor practices by the Corp of Engineers and run off issues from the concrete jungles of neighboring cities. I'm sure folks in California would say that some of these issues are made worse by bad policies of local government as well. These are complex issues.
We’ve got to stop thinking about everything as blue vs red. It’s ruining us.