In
this editorial at truthout.org, Wiliam Rivers Pitt postulates that the Katrina disaster has "annihilated the fundamental underpinnings of conservative governmental philosophy."
The conservative and neoconservative plan for the way this country should be run has been blasted to matchsticks, their choice of priorities exposed as lacking, to say the very least.
Pitt correctly identifies our main enemy as the Conservative/Republican philosophy and does a great job of tying it to the Katrina disaster (more below). However, I fear that his prediction that this philosophy is toast WON'T be true unless we all work really hard to make it so - to make everyone in the country understand and accept that it's this philosophy that is at the root of all the BushCo failures.
What we are seeing in New Orleans is the end result of what can be best described as extended Reaganomics. Small government, budget cuts across the board, tax cuts meant to financially strangle the ability of federal agencies to function, the diversion of billions of what is left in the budget into military spending: This has been the aim and desire of the conservative movement for decades now, and they have been largely successful in their efforts.
Combine this with a wildly expensive and unnecessary war, rampant cronyism that replaces professionals with unqualified hacks at nearly every level of government, and the basic neoconservative/Straussian premise that the truth is not important and that the so-called elite know best, and you have this catastrophe laid out on a platter.
And this is why it's so critically important for us to remember that it's dangerous to focus exclusively on blaming Bush, Chertoff or Brown for the Katrina catastrophe. In doing so, we risk taking only one head of the hydra while leaving the monster alive and capable of striking back.
For instance, even while the WH, FEMA and DHS are taking heavy fire for mishandling the disaster, not only has the RWNM been spinning blame away, Republicans in Congress have been rallying to push through the repeal of the Estate Tax.
Pitt quotes Howard Dean:
"Countless thousands of our fellow Americans throughout the Gulf Coast region continue to suffer in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina," said Dean. "While some have begun the painful task of rebuilding their lives and coping with the unfathomable loss, so many still await help. And the cost of this disaster in human and material terms remains unknown. It's simply irresponsible for Senator Frist and Ken Mehlman to even think about spending our tax dollars on breaks for millionaires at a time when our top priority must be to ensure we have the resources needed to address the long and short term costs associated with rescue, recovery, and rebuilding in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Not to mention the vital lesson we learned this week about the deadly cost of diverting funds at the expense of the safety of the American people. These costs, continued Dean, "also come at a time when our nation faces a massive deficit, and mounting costs in the ongoing war in Iraq."
It isn't irresponsible, Chairman. It's standard operating procedure. They've been doing it like this for so long that they've forgotten how to do it any other way. They are such true believers that they cannot fathom doing it any other way. Likely, they will get away with it, and the loss of estate tax revenues will further damage our nation's ability to care for its own.
To the usual litany of failures - Iraq, Katrina, cronyism, corruption and deficits - brought down on us all by the Republican/Conservative philosophy, I would add:
Enron
Wholesale privatization of government functions and simultaneous systematic gutting of oversight rules and structures.
The scuttling by ideologue Republicans of Clinton's 1994 Framework Agreement with NK that stood a good chance of preventing them from developing nukes in the first place.
Apathy toward international efforts to control the "loose nukes" in the former Soviet Union.
Vocal antipathy for rigorous science and agressive action against experts (Shinseki, Plame, Greenhouse, etc.) who disagree.
Cuts to the CDC's budget for infectious disease emergency preparedness programs in the face of the rapidly developing H5N1 threat.
No effective vaccine programs - "the free-market" will take care of that.
The extra-legislative gutting of rules and structures that were designed to protect Americans and America's resources from rampant corporate greed.
Deteriorating water and air quality.
The Bankruptcy Bill.
The "Real ID" program.
State and local governments wallowing in ever-increasing red ink as the federal government issues more and more unfunded mandates and agressively shift the costs of existing programs to the states.
The deterioration of trust and respect for America among our allies.
"Tinkle-down" economics.
Increasing numbers of the poor and uninsured. Shrinking real wages and purchasing power.
Increasing dependence on foreign oil.
Implied (but false spending choices) - either armor for the troops or helping NOLA evacuees.
The "streamlined military" - the plan to reduce the standing, active-duty army and thereby necessitate vastly increased reliance on Guard and Reserve troops for any foreign adventures (hatched by Cheney and Rumsfeld during Bush-41).
The now "common wisdom" among Americans that "taxes are bad", that life is all a zero-sum game.
"You're either with us or against us."
The 17 cents of every tax dollar that is now hoovered by the interest payments on the national debt.
The promotion of "freedom and security" at the expense of justice.
I encourage everyone here at Kos to give serious thought to what could be added to this list. Because our primary task needs to be to remind EVERYONE, not just each other, of what has befallen us as the result of this approach to government. And we need to hang all of these things around the neck of every Republican and corporatist Democrat. As Pitt says, we need to:
Throw conservative dogma into the dustbin of history where it belongs.
Remember that a massive, highly industrialized and infrastructured, diverse nation requires an effective central government, funded properly and staffed by professionals and patriots, in order to keep the wheels on the road. Remember the words of that great Republican, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said, "Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society." What we are seeing in New Orleans is not civilized society, but anarchy. The reasons for this are as clear as the nose on your face.
They have failed us. Many people are dead because of it.
Our biggest problem is that, the Republicans/Conservatives have been pounding this philosophy for so long and so broadly (thanks to the MSM), that much of its underpinnings have achieved the status of common wisdom. More than merely bouncing BushCo out of office, it is this philosophy, this common wisdom that we need to work our asses off to discredit.
We can't count on the opportunity provided by the FEMA/Katrina clusterfuck to do this job for us. WE can't count on the majority of Americans being able to parse this. We need to tell them, starting right now, over and over again, every day in every way.