There’s a lot of speculation about the political ramifications of Katrina. Not just whose heads will roll, but whether the disaster will change Americans’ view on the role of government. Here are New York Times columnist David Brooks’ musings:
“Reaganite conservatism was the response to the pessimism and feebleness of the 1970’s. Maybe this time there will be a progressive resurgence. Maybe we are entering an age of hardheaded law and order. (Rudy Giuliani, an unlikely G.O.P. nominee a few months ago, could now win in a walk.) Maybe there will be call for McCainist patriotism and nonpartisan independence. All we can be sure of is that the political culture is about to undergo some big change.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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10 Comments
Let us hope so! :)
100% with you on that one, Joe.
Obviously it’s time for a change. Two party politics is starting to wear thin. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a third choice; somewhere nearer to the middle? I know this is a stupid idea, but IMHO, it would be nice to have a government that represented all of the people.
We DO have a government that represents ALL of the people. That’s why we have elections, not coups. If the election doesn’t go your way, the government still represents you, like it or not.
Yes, the government still represents you like it or not.
A more accurate question all Americans should ask is, does government represent all of us responsibly?
Our government represents a direct manifestation of the social contract inherent in our representative democracy. One legal idea from contract law I’d like to see Americans insist on is the duty of due dilligence.
Due diligence is the effort a party makes to avoid harm to another party. Failure to perform due diligence, within contract law, is known as negligence.
Due diligence seems to me to be a way to put back the idea of accountability (”the buck stops here”), something sorely lacking in American government for too long, in my opinion.
It seems emminently fair to me to hold our government, at ALL levels, to the performance of this duty in upholding our social contract – at a minimum.
Bush approval down to 41 percent–hits all time low for Zogby poll.
http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1020
Is Bush doing a good job on Katrina? Looks like Americans are making up their minds pretty decisively.
Hell, no.
“We DO have a government that represents ALL of the people.”
Bisoni, the current government doesn’t represent anything but the far right wing of American society and big business interests. I voted for Bush the first time and I’ve regretted that decision ever since. I’m sick of the lies and the crass pandering to big moneyed interest groups.
Bush made me see the light. I don’t think I could ever vote for a Republican again.
No government can be ready, at the drop of a hat, to evacuate, house, and feed a million people as a precaution in advance of every storm; or to rebuild their lives if a storm actually hits.
Being ready for such a thing in every location in the country is a pipe dream. We would have empty apartment buildings everywhere, constantly being re-stocked with food and water, and empty schools and hospitals staffed and waiting for disaster victims who might come someday.
It’s not even a rational thing to ponder. So we have to do less, much less, and that means disasters will sometimes have terrible consequences.
The federal governmnment has never had the ability to do what some people seem to be expecting of it; and it never will. People have to be ready to fend for themselves when society’s infrastructure breaks down. We ignore this basic truth of survival at our own risk.
Trell, isn’t that the point of Homeland Security? I thought that after 9/11, we were supposed to be able to deal with a catastrophy.
The catastrophy is being dealt with. Of course, nothing is fast enough or good enough in a disaster. As for Homeland Security, it was created as a mega-bureaucracy by throwing several already-too-large bureaucratic operations together. They are still trying to sort out who is in charge of what. No doubt a lot of good people are trying to solve real problems in that department, but the bureaucracy and infighting are both natural and hopeless.
One problem with having too big a government is in the inability of bureaucracies to move quickly. Nothing will ever change that. That’s why we all need to keep some responsibility for our own welfare when disasters happen.
I certainly won’t argue that the national/state/county/city responsibilities for having a COORDINATED and WORKABLE disaster plan have been met. The meshing of various activities among these governments and the hundreds of private relief agencies is complicated and haphazard.
How else to explain that Louisiana state officials did not allow the Red Cross to distribute pre-positioned relief supplies to people in New Orleans? How else to explain that volunteers who rushed to help have been turned away in frustration.
There are lessons to be learned here, but I am not sanguine about their ever being learned. How many of you have prepared a Living Will or Power-of-Attorney as a result of the lesson learned from the Terry Schiavo mess?
Is it the government’s fault that you haven’t done it? Whose fault is it that you don’t have some food, water, and basic necessities put aside in a safe place at home in case of a tornado?
Many years from now, people will be having this same discussion after another natural disaster kills thousands. Unprepared individuals and bureaucratic governments are a fact of life. We can make improvements, but no political ideology has the wherewithal to wave a magic wand and make reality go away.
We have to deal with the real world. First, prepare your own survival kit, and then DEMAND that your local governments prove that they have coordinated and workable disaster plans.
Bickering about ideologies is a sideshow.