Progressive Democrat Issue 43: THOUGHTS
As I said last week, I will have less time to devote to this newsletter, at least until I get settled into my new job. But I will do my best to continue.
Slowly Bush is trying to spin Katrina his way. He is taking responsibility, taking control, he says. I think that is supposed to be reassuring to us! Well, it isn’t. Bush hasn’t taken responsibility for anything anytime in his life. Why didn’t he take control BEFORE the storm hit? Then maybe people would have been saved. Some right wingers are trying to blame the Governor of Louisiana, saying she didn’t ask for help in time. Let’s remember the facts: Governor Blanco asked for help on 8/28/05, before the hurricane hit. In that link there is another link to a PDF of Gov. Blanco’s request. She did the right thing. But let’s also remember that Bush didn’t just fail to help Louisiana. He failed to help Mississippi as well. Are they going to blame the Governor of Mississippi as well? I guess not because he is Republican.
The only logical conclusion is that Bush failed. Just like he failed to stop 9/11 despite warnings. Just like he failed to capture bin Laden. Just like he failed to prevent a massive deficit. Just like he failed to restore our economy to health.
Bush is a failure. That is one of the main lessons from Katrina. That and, as I covered last issue, it shows the failure of the conservative “starve the beast” approach to the Federal government’s domestic policy. When you minimize the serviced provided by the Federal government, you minimize America’s ability to cope with disasters like Katrina.
And there is one final lesson. Who suffers most from these policies of starving the government? One only has to look at the faces of those who were stranded in New Orleans to know the two likely answers. The only question is were the people abandoned in New Orleans abandoned because they are poor or because they are black? Is it classism or racism? That has been a controversy on the liberal blogs.
I think they are inseparable. Bottom line is the people abandoned in New Orleans were abandoned because they were poor AND black. The Federal government under Republican control doesn’t care at all for either the poor or minorities. That has been made very clear over the last 4 years. Voting rights get more and more limited to the point where the Voting Rights Act that came out of the Civil Rights Era is being threatened. Services to the poor are being cut to the bone. Education, that magical thing that lifts people out of poverty, has been cut to the bone. Taxes to the rich are cut just as services to the poor are cut. Our nation’s rich are prospering while most of us are faced with declining economic security. The only thing being offered the poor and minorities is a chance to join the army and die in Iraq. In this atmosphere, why should it surprise us that people who are poor and black are left to fend for themselves? That is the overall policy of the Republicans—“starving the beast” in the end starves the American poor.
Our nation is abandoning the progressive and populist policies that helped equalize opportunity. We are abandoning Head Start, Social Security, the Voting Rights Act, etc. etc. We are going back in time to the period where robber barons prospered with the help of corrupt government while the poor suffered long hours with low pay in sweat shops. On the Federal level and in Kentucky we are abandoning the merit system for political appointments, going back to a spoils system that leads to incompetent cronies like Brown heading FEMA. We are going back more than a century in time.
The irony is the President who started the process of equalizing opportunity through progressive and populist programs was a Republican—Theodore Roosevelt. Imagine T.R.’s take on Halliburton. Imagine T.R.’s take on Bush hiding away on 9/11 and refusing to visit New Orleans because it was unsafe. Imagine T.R’s view of Bush’s leadership. What has become of T.R.’s Republican Party?
We need a Theodore Roosevelt. We need an FDR. We need a Truman. What we absolutely don’t need is a George Bush, one of the most useless, craven and corrupt presidents in American history.
Over the past decade or so, the left has been divided. We fight amongst ourselves. We refuse to vote because we don’t like certain candidates. We take up Republican sound bytes like calling our candidates “wishy-washy” or boring even when they are not. Some on the left even claimed that Bush and Gore were the same.
We on the left no longer have the luxury for infighting. We no longer have the luxury to be lazy or half-hearted politically. Because the result of our infighting and laziness has been the triumph of the Halliburton Republicans with the consequences that Americans are losing their rights, losing their economic stability and losing their lives. The laziness and the infighting on the left indirectly contributes to the abandonment of America’s poor and minorities.
If we don’t get our act together right now, America will continue to decline under corrupt Republican rule and the poor and minorities will be increasingly abandoned to suffer, to die or to join the army to die in wars for Halliburton’s profits.
It is time to FIGHT!!!!!!!!! Our survival and our freedoms depend on it.
Slowly Bush is trying to spin Katrina his way. He is taking responsibility, taking control, he says. I think that is supposed to be reassuring to us! Well, it isn’t. Bush hasn’t taken responsibility for anything anytime in his life. Why didn’t he take control BEFORE the storm hit? Then maybe people would have been saved. Some right wingers are trying to blame the Governor of Louisiana, saying she didn’t ask for help in time. Let’s remember the facts: Governor Blanco asked for help on 8/28/05, before the hurricane hit. In that link there is another link to a PDF of Gov. Blanco’s request. She did the right thing. But let’s also remember that Bush didn’t just fail to help Louisiana. He failed to help Mississippi as well. Are they going to blame the Governor of Mississippi as well? I guess not because he is Republican.
The only logical conclusion is that Bush failed. Just like he failed to stop 9/11 despite warnings. Just like he failed to capture bin Laden. Just like he failed to prevent a massive deficit. Just like he failed to restore our economy to health.
Bush is a failure. That is one of the main lessons from Katrina. That and, as I covered last issue, it shows the failure of the conservative “starve the beast” approach to the Federal government’s domestic policy. When you minimize the serviced provided by the Federal government, you minimize America’s ability to cope with disasters like Katrina.
And there is one final lesson. Who suffers most from these policies of starving the government? One only has to look at the faces of those who were stranded in New Orleans to know the two likely answers. The only question is were the people abandoned in New Orleans abandoned because they are poor or because they are black? Is it classism or racism? That has been a controversy on the liberal blogs.
I think they are inseparable. Bottom line is the people abandoned in New Orleans were abandoned because they were poor AND black. The Federal government under Republican control doesn’t care at all for either the poor or minorities. That has been made very clear over the last 4 years. Voting rights get more and more limited to the point where the Voting Rights Act that came out of the Civil Rights Era is being threatened. Services to the poor are being cut to the bone. Education, that magical thing that lifts people out of poverty, has been cut to the bone. Taxes to the rich are cut just as services to the poor are cut. Our nation’s rich are prospering while most of us are faced with declining economic security. The only thing being offered the poor and minorities is a chance to join the army and die in Iraq. In this atmosphere, why should it surprise us that people who are poor and black are left to fend for themselves? That is the overall policy of the Republicans—“starving the beast” in the end starves the American poor.
Our nation is abandoning the progressive and populist policies that helped equalize opportunity. We are abandoning Head Start, Social Security, the Voting Rights Act, etc. etc. We are going back in time to the period where robber barons prospered with the help of corrupt government while the poor suffered long hours with low pay in sweat shops. On the Federal level and in Kentucky we are abandoning the merit system for political appointments, going back to a spoils system that leads to incompetent cronies like Brown heading FEMA. We are going back more than a century in time.
The irony is the President who started the process of equalizing opportunity through progressive and populist programs was a Republican—Theodore Roosevelt. Imagine T.R.’s take on Halliburton. Imagine T.R.’s take on Bush hiding away on 9/11 and refusing to visit New Orleans because it was unsafe. Imagine T.R’s view of Bush’s leadership. What has become of T.R.’s Republican Party?
We need a Theodore Roosevelt. We need an FDR. We need a Truman. What we absolutely don’t need is a George Bush, one of the most useless, craven and corrupt presidents in American history.
Over the past decade or so, the left has been divided. We fight amongst ourselves. We refuse to vote because we don’t like certain candidates. We take up Republican sound bytes like calling our candidates “wishy-washy” or boring even when they are not. Some on the left even claimed that Bush and Gore were the same.
We on the left no longer have the luxury for infighting. We no longer have the luxury to be lazy or half-hearted politically. Because the result of our infighting and laziness has been the triumph of the Halliburton Republicans with the consequences that Americans are losing their rights, losing their economic stability and losing their lives. The laziness and the infighting on the left indirectly contributes to the abandonment of America’s poor and minorities.
If we don’t get our act together right now, America will continue to decline under corrupt Republican rule and the poor and minorities will be increasingly abandoned to suffer, to die or to join the army to die in wars for Halliburton’s profits.
It is time to FIGHT!!!!!!!!! Our survival and our freedoms depend on it.
posted by mole333 | 11:55 PM
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