Those on the right supposedly believe that much of the assistance that goes to the needy should be provided by voluntary efforts and contributions rather than the government. But if their response to Katrina is any indication, this is a principle that they honor more in the breach than in the practice.
Ironically, many of those vilified by the right wing have mobilized significant numbers of volunteers and have sent money and supplies to aid Katrina victims and help in recovery.
Rainbow/PUSH organized its own rescue efforts; the NAACP, the DNC, and Veterans for Peace in conjunction with Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan supporters have each set up independent relief operations. Moveon.org has located volunteers to house 250,000 of the victims, a response that appears to exceed the housing that FEMA has managed to provide. The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers have set up their own relief funds; the National Education Association has committed $1 to hurricane relief; liberal blogs are providing free ads for Katrina relief, and most liberal organizations have links to the Red Cross or other relief organizations. Of course, we know that Al Gore personally arranged for the evacuation of some residents to Tennessee.
So what have conservative organizations done? I could find no examples of conservative political organizations actually setting up any kind of rescue or relief operations, unless you count Operation Blessing, Pat Robertson's relief foundation. The National Federation of Republican Women is the only conservative organization I could find that had actively engaged in raising money for Katrina relief (and this may have just been at their convention). Some conservative organizations have a link to the Red Cross or other relief organizations on their web-sites. Move America Forward, modeled after MoveOn.org, is actually using pictures of hurricane victims to raise money for ads and a bus tour to attack the opponents of the Iraq War.
It seems to me that this contrast is very telling and it suggests to me that what characterizes conservative activists at the national level is an unwillingness to contribute to the society and communities to which they belong in any way that is commensurate with the benefits that they derive from them. They don't want to pay taxes and they don't want to give voluntarily but they want to take everything they can get.
I live in a small town where the local conservatives--mainly business owners--do not act in this manner. They are the first one's to pitch in money and supplies when there is a community in need. Of course this is enlightened self-interest, because if they didn't they wouldn't be thought of as good members of the community and they would lose business.
At a national level, though, that is just what conservatives have become: parasites on the society who are unwilling to pay their fair share to be members. They ought to be called on this.