A failure of vision
In a piece of fiction I wrote, I had a character who made the distinction between high corruption and low corruption. High corruption meant that politicians and contractors overcharged as much as they could but got the job done. Low corruption was when so much money was made off with that a project couldn't be completed, like the Triborough Bridge, stopped in midair because Mayor Jimmy Walker and his crew had stolen so much they couldn't finish the bridge. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to supply the finances for the bridge to be finished.
What Katrina has shown us is that the Republican philosophy of hating the federal government has finally proven what theworst version of getting government off the back of the people can mean. The naked back of the people can be broken because the government was not up to the job of protecting its citizens. Though his leadership was tragically inept, I do not think the problem is President Bush. I think that the government could be in exactly the same very bad shape under another Republican. This administration is fully the product ofan agenda that is running onthe fumes of an empty philosophical tank. The administration is now an impotent symptom, but it is not the disease. The disease is the Republican vision of American society that is clearly at odds with reality.
Of course, you will always have patronage of one sort or another, but patronage needs to be used in the pursuit of an ideal. In other words, make sure that the person being given the job can do the job first. The person cannot get a high position just because he drinks with the right person or was a buddy in college or brought in some votes or some money. Then we have low corruption, which is the ultimate governmental sin because money is wasted AND the job is not done. This sin, as we see, leaves thousands of dead floating in fetid water if the job is emergency assistance and the dupe in charge doesn't know what he is doing.
It is perhaps impossible to change human nature, but it is possible to keep vigilant and come into the game playing by the rules that mean the most to a successful team.
The Republicans have sold out to everything possible - big money, the Christian right, Southern rednecks and the idea that cronyism works in place of good, federal government. They have confused winning elections with the rightness of their core principles, which do not have anything to do with each other, actually. That is so true that when the country saw what an inept federal government looks like, even the mass media mouthpieces for Republicanism at its most rabid reacted. They turned purple, popped some collar buttons and began spitting bile at the elephants because one can only excuse so many dead bodies floating in the water. But what they were actually seeing was a dead political philosophy floating down river, with its passing marked clearly by the corpses of the people of New Orleans and the suffering of those who survived.
Originally published on September 8, 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment