Saturday, September 03, 2005

New Orleans and the new new deal.

Like "ned" said down below, the mess NO is in now is the product of ineffective government. It's not just a government that isn't good at what it does though, it's a government that insists on it's own incompetence.
I made an entry a long long time ago about this regime being the first one (ok, 2nd, Reagan) to agree with "corporate america" that "coporate america" is much more fit to run every aspect of the country than the government of, by and for the people. In turn, they've stripped the goverment down to a waif, concerned mostly with inserting christianity into the lives of the citizenry, and spreading some cash and influence around.

What happened to government that got it's hands dirty, literally? The new deal dug ditches for a living. It made permanent changes to America that left her a better place for a huge number of people, especially the poor. The new deal taught americans that in their time of dire need, a strong, democratic government can harness the power of the people and make things right.

The new new deal was on vacation when the hurricane hit. The new new deal flew over and looked at the damage from a plane, and asked the citizenry to donate money to save their fellow man (because the goverment had already spent that money elsewhere). The new new deal has set race relations back 40 years, and presided over thousands of preventable deaths, because the new new deal doesn't know it's his job. The new new deal doesn't dig ditches for a living.

1 comment:

ネイット said...

I posted this somwhere else just now, but it's a fine addendum to the above.
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the new deal was america's brief tryst with socialism. FDR brought america back on it's feet after the depression with social programs, industrial legislation, millions of temporary jobs and massive public works projects.
Social Security, the 40 hour work week, the securities and exchange commision, the minimum wage, and the national labor relations act, legally allowing unions are all part of the new deal.

Bush has attacked each and every one of those institutions. Nothing that benefits the people has been left to stand.