While conservative commentators are blaming the poor and local officials, Nicholas Kristof reminds us that, "the number of poor people has now risen 17 percent under Mr. Bush." That's right, 17% more people with just a bus or subway pass and maybe enough food to eat for the week and thus have no way of renting a car or buying a plane ticket to escape a natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Should there have been a better evacuation plan for New Orleans? Sure. But imagine if there weren't so many poor folks to start with. That would have meant fewer folks at the Superdome or the Convention Center. Or imagine if FEMA or DHS had actually helped the local and state leaders develop an implement a real evacuation plan. Four years after 9/11 and DHS and FEMA clearly don't have a clue on how to deal with diasters "that no one ever thought could happen." Four years of the Radical Republicans telling us they'll keep us safe and FEMA and DHS have done little to help cities prepare for diasters. Conservatives will like to pass the buck and say that it's the fault of local (Democratic) leadership, but when you're paying for one "terror alert" after another in order to keep Georgie's poll numbers up, it's hard to find the cash to do such things. All those billions sent to cronies or to tax cuts could have gone to help local and state officials plan for responding to a disaster instead of making a big show of doing something. These problems are too big and complex to pass onto one city or one state. The diaster in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast shows why we need a functioning federal government. One run by people who know what they're doing (not old buddies from college suddenly in need of a job).
It's time for America to grow up and remember why the founders of this country ditched the whole confederation idea in which states were pretty much on their own. They did so because it didn't work. And Rebulicans only push the whole "state's rights" thing becuse they believe they can control a state without an active press much easier than they can the entire country. It's time for America to realize that the America the Republicans want to bring us is based on a model that didn't work all that well and was ditched because of it. That model brings us more poor people, more people without health insurance, schools that are beholden to narrow minded special interests who can intimidate local and state officials, a country where the powerless and the poor are at the mercy of nature, chance, and the whims of the powerful, and brings us a federal government woefully unprepared to respond to disasters. The best way to avoid disasters like we're seeing in New Orleans is to have a more equitable distribution of wealth and having a Congress that really reflects the people who elect it. That means an end to voter intimidation, special "junkets" paid for by the powerful and wealthy, and electoral districts that reflect the communities they represent rather than some political interest. Republicans like to bemoan the loss of community, yet they draw electoral districts that no more resemble communities than George Bush resembles a compassionate leader. It's time for a change. It's time we once and for all reject the Republican vision of America. The Repulican talking point of "personal responsiblity" sounds great until an event like a hurricane, a stock market crash (or just the company you work for going broke because of the corrupt criminals in charge of it have sucked it dry), or a terrorist attack disrupts even the best laid plans of being "personally responsible."
