Me am sick of this crap
Just when you thought you couldn't be more pissed at the GOP controlled government. Let's not forget, they control everything! This is kind of a response to Alex's earlier post about Katrina.
It seems to me, more than a week into this mess, that the problem here is the very core of the Republican governing philosophy. Now this doesn't apply to all Republicans, but it does to the ones in power, certainly to the Bushies, and their famed ability to make every Republican in Congress do what they want: They don't believe in good government. From Grover Norquist to President Bush himself they believe the Fed is some kind of necessary evil to be hobbled and privatized at every opportunity. Hardcore Libertarians, who believe the government's only job is to defend the nation and your property rights and nothing more, are just as bad. If you don't believe government can act as a force for good you will never use it in that way. You will hire unqualified old roommates, cut funding, and prefer everyone to go it alone in an "ownership society" that, as far as I can tell actually means "every man for himself!" Which is really what Libertarians are after, right?
But that's not what Government is for, not what America, and American Communities, are about. There are some problems that only the federal government (when well-managed) can solve. We may disagree on what they are (I would list health care as one) but we can surely agree on some of them, like massive natural disasters. So I would love to see a few Conservatives stepping up to the plate and admiting that after all these years of telling the country that Big Government is EVIL and must be gotten off their backs, they were wrong, and there are plenty of times where you want nothing more than the Federal Government watching out for you. That doesn't mean I want them to support National Health Care (well, I do, but I don't expect it here) but just that they admit that Government can and should be a force for good in people's lives so we can have an honest debate about how to go about that. Right now we seem stuck in a "Government good!" "No, government bad!" spiral of uselessness that mainly leads the GOP to go around proving just how awful the Fed can actually be.
In short, would you ever vote a communist to head up your Fortune 500 company? If not, why would you ever elect a modern Republican to lead the country?
It seems to me, more than a week into this mess, that the problem here is the very core of the Republican governing philosophy. Now this doesn't apply to all Republicans, but it does to the ones in power, certainly to the Bushies, and their famed ability to make every Republican in Congress do what they want: They don't believe in good government. From Grover Norquist to President Bush himself they believe the Fed is some kind of necessary evil to be hobbled and privatized at every opportunity. Hardcore Libertarians, who believe the government's only job is to defend the nation and your property rights and nothing more, are just as bad. If you don't believe government can act as a force for good you will never use it in that way. You will hire unqualified old roommates, cut funding, and prefer everyone to go it alone in an "ownership society" that, as far as I can tell actually means "every man for himself!" Which is really what Libertarians are after, right?
But that's not what Government is for, not what America, and American Communities, are about. There are some problems that only the federal government (when well-managed) can solve. We may disagree on what they are (I would list health care as one) but we can surely agree on some of them, like massive natural disasters. So I would love to see a few Conservatives stepping up to the plate and admiting that after all these years of telling the country that Big Government is EVIL and must be gotten off their backs, they were wrong, and there are plenty of times where you want nothing more than the Federal Government watching out for you. That doesn't mean I want them to support National Health Care (well, I do, but I don't expect it here) but just that they admit that Government can and should be a force for good in people's lives so we can have an honest debate about how to go about that. Right now we seem stuck in a "Government good!" "No, government bad!" spiral of uselessness that mainly leads the GOP to go around proving just how awful the Fed can actually be.
In short, would you ever vote a communist to head up your Fortune 500 company? If not, why would you ever elect a modern Republican to lead the country?
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