My tinfoil take on the federal response to Katrina:
I try very hard not to buy into conspiracies, but I am wearing a tinfoil hat right now. It seems more than a little suspect that the POTUS was so obviously not interested in the hurricane. How could his handlers let that happen to the number one Compassionate Conservative TM? The vice president is usually sent to oversee something if the president is involved in some serious birthday guitar eating and cake playing. Darth Cheney of course was unable to be reached, undoubtedly tangled up in his fishing tackle.
The Bush gang decided in advance not to fund the levee repairs. They put incompetent people in place to deal with hurricanes and floods. FEMA is not just refusing to save people--it is refusing to let anyone else save people! Bodies are floating in the streets, and the federal government's reaction is to refuse to help? And the head of FEMA is some loser Lassie wouldn't hire to oversee a disaster rescue? And they are all college drinking buddies? Could this get any worse? Oh yeah, Karl Rove is going to be in charge of rebuilding....
More after the fold
It just doesn't seem that this micromanaged image-conscious administration would allow this, even as they now try to spin the disaster in the direction of the local authorities. Here is what I think: this whole fiasco is a conservative performance art piece to hammer home the concept that they have been pushing at us for the past 20 years: that the government is NOT. YOUR. FRIEND. Your friend would not leave you to drown. But the government will. The government is never to be relied on. The government does not care. The government is incompetent. The government cannot help poor people. The government has packed up and gone fishin', whistling like Andy Griffith.
Therefore we are all on our own--so look to the private sector for everything you need. If you don't have money, tough. As Compassionate Conservative TM Bill O'Reilly wrote recently, the lesson of Katrina is this: don't be poor. See, the nice wealthy people with nice cars got out! And their little doggies, too! And their kids--well, the nanny rescued the kids. But they weren't left on their roofs waiting for the government to send a helicopter, no siree. They didn't die alone in an attic. They probably got in a round of golf later that day. So, if you don't want to die in a natural disaster, a)stay far, far away from the government and b) become rich. Easy. See? What people in poverty need is some useless rich windbag to explain to them that being poor sucks. Who knew?
In every natural disaster in the world, it is the least powerful people who suffer the most. They are, by definition, lacking the resources to protect themselves. So any major problem in NOLA would be hardest on the poor, black, elderly, handicapped, children, etc. In western democracies, and even in poor countries, it has long been understood that the social contract means that everyone, even the least powerful, is entitled to help in emergencies.
At least until the Reagan era. That is when it became possible to float absurd ideas like private police and fire departments who only help people who can pay for the services. That is when it became acceptable to step over the bodies of homeless people laying on the sidewalk, and feel scorn towards them, rather than empathy. That is when it became possible for white males to argue that they face discrimination, and that women and minorities have all the good, high-paying jobs (on what planet?).
Anyone over 30 on this site can remember when the federal government acted like it gave a damn. I grew up poor and as a child we had wonderful free summer camps, park activities, arts and crafts, library programs. Vaccination programs targeted everyone, whether you could pay or not, and happened at school. We got screened for sickle cell. I had a speech defect and was sent to speech therapy. At school. At no charge. We had music, art and PE every day. When my mother lost her job, we got food stamps immediately. I am not saying the 1960's and 70's were paradise for poor black families like mine. But there was a bedrock idea that the government was supposed to help you if you were in trouble. Even during the Nixon era. It was unthinkable that the POTUS would be grinning and vacationing while millions of people were in danger of their lives.
I just heard a conservative caller on a progressive talk show confirm my analysis. He said that liberals were stupid because they believed that the government could solve problems, "--look at Katrina! It's a mess because government can't do anything right! That's why the schools are so bad! The government is involved!" And so forth. Sounded like a talking point to me....
It looks to me like a carefully planned long-term strategy to destroy our democracy. I do not think that I am not exaggerating. Check me if I am wrong:
- Begin a PR campaign criticizing the government: tell everyone that government is bad, inefficient, sloppy, wasteful and useless. Use television as primary source to communicate to masses--visual images cause people to react emotionally, not intellectually.
- Gradually defund and eliminate domestic and international programs, especially anything associated with poor people. When necessary, make sure that these programs have a negative image, linked with race and sex as often as possible. First target the ones that have less public support like welfare (blacks who just spend it all on crack and lie around having sex all day) international aid (ignorant brown people squander our money and it only pays for abortions anyway); arts programs (nasty homosexuals spend our money taking dirty pictures of naked Negro men).
- Use the examples above to garner support for moving more and more government functions to the private sector. Use religion (ie generic Protestant Christianity) as a wedge to get support for privatization of social services (faith-based initiatives and vouchers for religious private schools). Encourage selfishness by cloaking is as self-reliance: why should I pay for anyone else's health care? I pay my own way--let everyone else pay theirs.
- Demonize any critics of this strategy as enemies of Christianity, patriotic Americans and traditional values: feminists, gays, liberals, college professors, environmentalists, the Hollywood elite.
- Shift funds to military sector. React to international threats militarily. Create threats and enemies when necessary. Put energy executives in charge of environmental policy. Put pharmaceutical companies in charge of the FDA.
- When quality of life begins to decline because of this strategy, blame people for their lack of "personal responsibility": People should live on their incomes--then they wouldn't need bankruptcy protection; minorities should act like white people--then they wouldn't need affirmative action; teenagers should not have sex--then they wouldn't need birth control or abortions; flood victims should not have been living there--then they wouldn't need to be rescued; poor people, well they just should not be poor--everyone knows that poverty is the poor people' fault, so why should anybody help them? Be good, honest and true, then God will smile on you.
- Promote consumerism, not government action as solution for serious problems. Terrorist attack? Go shopping. Feel anxious and depressed? Take expensive prescription drugs. Feeling insecure? Buy an oversized SUV. Want to show your patriotism? Buy a magnetic sticker. Afraid of biological and chemical weapons? Buy some duct tape. Massive hurricane and flood? Eat cake, go fishing, shop for expensive shoes.
- Rig elections and encourage people not to vote. Make sure people lose faith in the electoral system. Encourage them to look elsewhere for democracy--the marketplace, where consumer choice rules and your dollar votes count.
- Always stick to the talking points. Never admit wrong. Blame the media. Deny everything. Don't break ranks. Push the "useless government" meme.
- Lather, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Of course, those who promote this strategy don't following their own rules: they lie constantly; give lucrative government contracts to companies who waste the money and screw their employees; they dump their wives for other women serially, have same-sex affairs, drink, use drugs and gamble; they break ethics rules; they borrow billions to finance their pet projects, leaving future taxpayers the burden of paying the tab; they become wealthy as government lobbyists and consultants; they practice white male affirmative action by hiring their unqualified college roommates and drinking buddies for important positions.
When they get caught at this because their actions are illegal or cause suffering, they move back to #4, demonize the critic. Those biased liberal media, pointy headed professors, atheist scientists, racist minority activists, nutty anti-war protestors, how could we expect them to understand real Americans? And when all else fails, admit guilt and get religion (remember how fast Jeff Gannon of right-wing gay journalist-hooker fame became "born again"?)
We can't let this strategy win. We have to keep pushing our own strategy: to convince the people of the US that they are not powerless, and that yes, the government is We the People. Our country is at rock bottom right now and the whole world is watching. If we don't fight for our democracy and hold the government accountable, who will?