"A hurricane of blame"


The Boston Globe takes a look
Cathy Young of the Boston Globe has a great article.

"Not that there weren't very good reasons to be harshly critical of Bush, whose response to the disaster was slow and often clueless and insensitive. But that's not enough for the Bush-bashers. Michael Moore, in an open letter to Bush on his website, fingers him as the cause of the disaster: He slashed funds for maintaining the levees in New Orleans, diverted to Iraq the National Guard troops that could have helped in the rescue, and blocked antiglobal warming measures. Others have echoed these charges. Never mind that no serious scientist believes Hurricane Katrina was related to global warming, that there were plenty of troops in nearby areas, they just didn't get to the scene fast enough, or that, according to The Washington Post, flood control projects in New Orleans have received more money per year under the Bush administration than under Clinton.

Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman blames the disaster and its mishandling on conservative small-government ideology. Never mind that Bush, who has hiked domestic discretionary spending by 25 percent, is no more a small-government conservative than Bill Clinton was a socialist. And never mind that there was ample federal money going to Army Corps of Engineers projects in Louisiana, except that a lot of it went to costly boondoggles.

Then there's the most incendiary charge of all, leveled by Moore, Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and others: that Bush, and the powers that be in general, didn't care about the mostly black and poor victims in New Orleans because of racism. There is no question that poverty played a large role in the survivors' plight, or that there is still a strong linkage between race and class in America. But the leap from that to the charge of racism is irresponsible, to say the least."

I have to agree with her. Offline and online, my experience is that anything I say or do that shifts any of the blame away from Mr. Bush is met with rampant hostility and attacks. And if I dare mention that the failed social programs of the last 40 years may have had more than a little to do with the poverty in New Orleans, well, "racist" is the kindest of the comments.

The final paragraph is worth quoting.

Not all of the political spin has been on the left. Some conservatives have been far too willing to let the federal government off the hook while justifiably pointing to the ineptitude of state and local authorities. Several conservative commentators, as well as Fox News host Brit Hume and correspondent Brian Wilson, repeated the erroneous or at least vastly exaggerated claim that Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation only at Bush's insistence. But right now, all that pales before the political hysteria and racial demagoguery on the Bush-hating left. And yes, if it were Kerry in the White House, the haters on the right would have been just as bad. That's cold comfort to those who would like to see human lives put before politics.

Blast her if you like, after all, Reason is not a bastion of the Left. That doesn't mean she isn't speaking truth.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - September 12, 2005 at 04:56 AM  Tag


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