Don't Let Bush Reframe The Blame

In writing about Hurricane Katrina, George Lakoff states:

"This was not just incompetence (though there was plenty of it), not just a natural disaster (though nature played its part), not just Bush (though he is accountable). This is a failure of moral and political philosophy -- a deadly failure. That is the deep truth behind this human tragedy, humanly caused."

The fact is that right-wing conservatives are destroying our country.

Grover Norquist, policy crafter for the Republican Reich, spoke in a room of 4000 very wealthy Bush supporters after the results of the 2004 presidential election. He announced with glee that Republicans would now "stick a knife in government and kill it."

That is just what conservative and Republican politicians have been doing, and as we have seen with Hurricane Katrina, their policies are working, with devastating results. The reason? According to Lakoff it is because:

"Their main value is 'Rely on individual discipline and initiative.' The central principle: 'Government has no useful role.' The only common good is the sum of individual goods.

It's the difference between 'We're all in this together' and 'You're on your own, buddy.'

It's the difference between 'Every citizen is entitled to protection' and 'You're only entitled to what you can afford.'

It's the difference between connection and separation.

It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina."

"A lack of empathy and responsibility accounts for Bush's indifference and the government's delay in response, as well as the failure to plan for the security of the most vulnerable: the poor, the infirm, the aged, the children."

"Eliminating as much as possible of the role of government accounts for the demotion of FEMA from cabinet rank, for Michael Brown's view that FEMA was a federal entitlement program to be cut, for the budget cuts in levee repair, for placing more responsibility on state and local government than they could handle, for the failure to fully employ the military, and for the lax regulation of toxic waste dumps contributing to a "toxic stew."

Incidentally, for those who are unaware, Bush appointed Michael Brown to his current post. Brown's expertise is not in disaster management, for he has no experience there. He was the judges and stewards commissioner of a racehorse association.

In his usual style, Bush ignores calls to fire Brown. (I'm waiting for him to give us the now familiar pep talk about what a great public servant Brown is.) Instead the right-wing machine is blaming the Mayor of New Orleans and local officials to try and get the heat off itself.

But Mayor Ray Nagin and his Police Chief, Eddie Compass are heroes. I don't think the American people are going to fall for Bush's lies, having seen and heard Nagin and Compass on television and heard their first-hand accounts.

In addition, Senator Mary Landrieu, after spending the last ten days in Katrina's wake in her home state, had this to say:

"If one person criticizes them" [local officials such as the Mayor of New Orleans] "or says one more thing" [to criticize local officials, even if it is]"...the president of the United States, he will hear from me...One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him [the President]. Literally."

"Everybody anticipated the breach of the levee, Mr. President," Landrieu said, in contradiction of Bush's statement last week that no one "anticipated the breach of the levees." And as she addressed the U.S. Senate, she noted that even "...the clay figurine, Mr. Bill, from 'Saturday Night Live'" anticipated the breach, asking "How can it be that Mr. Bill was better informed than Mr. Bush?"

Simple. He has those wonderful right-wing values and principles: he doesn't care enough to be informed.

Unfortunately, Democrats are letting Bush spin it his way and, as Lakoff says, once the American people accept the spin, there will be no changing it.

So write to your Democratic representatives right now. Send them Lakoff's article and tell them: get with it or we'll have this type of tragedy again.

Republicans can't seem to help themselves, they just have no heart. Majority Leader Dennis Hastert doesn't believe money should be wasted on rebuilding New Orleans and Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) of Baton Rouge was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

If we don't unite and start speaking in one voice to present an alternative to this mindset, we each will hold a much bigger share of the blame for the next disaster.

We must demand that the Democratic party create a compassionate progressive agenda for the American people to follow, based upon compassion and concern for the common good.

Judging from the amount of courage, compassion and bravery out there, the American people - our people - are ready, willing and waiting for it.