They wanted to drown government in a bathtub, they took New Orleans

[The Backlash Cometh]

down with it. Who's next?

I would believe that we could get through this IF I had confidence in the leadership. I don't. I don't see how we're going to come together when there are still whites in this country who feel free to say in front of me that those people in New Orleans were black and poor, why don't they just go get a job. Or that the governor of Louisiana or Rush Limbaugh could get away with saying that they could have gotten out, but didn't.

They were poor, they needed public transportation. Why were they left to die?

This is a crisis with many jagged edges. What WAS government's responsibility in all this? Why isn't there popular consensus in this country that the New Orleans disaster was a colossal public assistance failure? If we don't get that point across, then this is destined to be repeated somewhere else in this country.

Republicans wanted to drown government in the bathtub. Someone should tell them they have succeeded.

[screembloodymurder]

1. Mission accomplished.

They have successfully dismantled the "Great Society" and the world is watching in horror at the results.

[BQueen]

2. made a similar comment in response to NYT editorial

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x152486

>>>>But it's already a very costly game of catch-up. The situation might have been considerably less dire if all of Louisiana's and Mississippi's National Guard had been mobilized before the storm so they could organize, enforce and aid in the evacuation of vulnerable low-lying areas. Plans should have been drawn up for doing so, with sufficient trained forces available to carry them out.

It's too late for that now. But the hard lessons of this week must be learned and incorporated into the nation's plans for future emergencies, whether these come in the form of natural disasters or terrorist attacks. Every state must now update its plans for quick emergency responses and must be assured by the Pentagon that it will be able to keep enough National Guard soldiers on hand to carry out these plans on very short notice.<<<<<

Translation: Don't ever count on the Feds -- states, step in and make responsive FEMA-type plans for disasters and/or attacks at least loosely coordinated with surrounding states, with bigger plans on hand to give, wholesale, to the foundering Federal agency figurehead if something monumental happens. (Threaten said figurehead with whatever you have to in order to force them to DO THEIR FRIGGING JOB!)

It's maddening. Norquist's vision is coming true -- they have undermined the social contract to the point that the federal government is no longer functioning, and the states and private individuals are FORCED to act in the breach. This will then be used as *evidence* that those horrible programs were never "necessary" to begin with, even though the public outpouring was engendered by their own systemic/strategic failures.

It's like when your dad screwed up the laundry on purpose so your mom would never ask him to do it again...on a global fucking scale.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. There's a point where you have to say, this government is Republican

made -- no longer controlled by true public servants.

The reason why Norquist MIGHT win is because we aren't defining "government." Government under Democratic leadership is different than government under Republican leadership. Republicans have been able to take potshots at government, while they make it ever worse, because we don't have a defining line. We need a clear distinction where we can say this is government when government was a public service for the people, and this is government after that point when Republicans made it their business venture.

Government under the public service model believed in studies based on scientific research and based their policy on the conclusions of that research. Government under the business model took unnecessary risks with human life because they based their policies on the bottom line: money. The failure in the business model is that an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure, and no one in charge wanted to spend even an ounce.