What A Republican Government Looks Like
Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 05:26:36 PM PDT
A Republican friend of mine told me that Katrina had opened his eyes:
"The greatest danger to a democracy is an increasing bureaucracy. As the bureaucracy becomes more entrenched, it becomes less responsive to both the government and the people."
Unfortunately, this is THE WORST POSSIBLE lesson to take from Katrina because it is the most blatantly false.
Republicans have been railing for years against "big" and "entrenched government" that is "unresponsive." They've advocated gutting federal and state programs and implementing free market reforms to make government "lighter" and more "efficient." Yet these efforts have given us a superficial, expanded, large bureaucracy that has been eaten away from the inside and is rotten to the core.
Republicans hold a simplistic and unrealistic concept of government's role that is limited to fighting an external enemy. To bring the world into alignment with their ideology they seek to actively undermine government by reducing its effectiveness, control and funding while they enrich themselves and redirect monies to their cronies and private interests in an attempt to starve and dismantle the government. A Republican federal government looks much like Enron; a corrupt organization spiraling out of control as executives loot its coffers for their own enrichment, shift and hide debt and eat away at the core leaving a thin façade and a weak center. All in an effort to destroy the government from the inside out.
The result is the worst of both worlds; increasingly large government bureaucracies with the substance and weight of Swiss cheese. The huge holes in FEMA are the result of incompetent political appointees, the dismantling of the "government" that has taken place as Republicans have attempted to "starve the beast" and "drown government in a bathtub" and the accompanying exodus of experienced officials and repeated funding cuts to programs designed to address issues of infrastructure. Republicans are like termites; rapidly undermining the physical and social infrastructure of this country.
But what Republicans refuse to acknowledge is that there are legitimate reasons for citizens to look to government for redress and solutions. In securing legal rights, fighting external enemies, and dealing with large disasters, both man-made (economic, like the great depression) and natural, government can provide services that private and voluntary sectors are incapable, unwilling, or unable to provide. As a civilized society we have turned to government in these instances to provide coherent relief. And the precedent for federal involvement in disasters has been prevalent in the past century; including the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake that predates even the New Deal (that conservatives love to loathe) and recent hurricanes in Florida.
In the aftermath of the disaster, there was a tremendous outpouring of aid, supplies and volunteers. But charitable organizations and private efforts can only do so much. Frustration stemmed from our helplessness because government, which was supposed to fill the role of getting supplies into the area, controlling the security situation on the ground and organizing the evacuation, failed to step in. These are tasks that demand troops, federal coordination and specialized equipment. No one but the government has access to the necessary resources, the authorization and the capability of organizing such an effort.
Republican's wanted a limited government. That is what they got. The outcry has come as the American public has seen the cost of that policy in tears, death and suffering. Americans have seen what a Republican government looks like; and it is anathema to the values and ideals of this nation.
This is what Reaganism and "limited government" in the Republican sense of the word looks like.
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