Posted on 09/08/2005 2:47:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Hurricane Katrina has left the Gulf coast devastated. Thousands are feared dead, homes are destroyed and lawlessness has gripped New Orleans. The tragic situation on the Gulf Coast, however, cannot be blamed on nature alone. The dominant political ideology in this country has exacerbated the problem.
This ideology is not racism, hate or greed. I am talking about good old Ronald Reagan conservatism. This ideology has permeated our country far too long, and as we now see has weakened our national cohesion and our ability to meet the needs of all Americans.
Conservative ideology promotes disregarding and alienating the poor and disadvantaged. Republicans use every opportunity they can to demonize minorities and those in poverty. They have effectively silenced the poor by consistently supporting laws that hinder their voting rights. The fact that officials reacted so slowly to a disaster that is affecting mostly poor black people is a byproduct of this same ideology. In this country, conservative leadership promotes a culture of individualism so extreme that it reaches the point of state-sanctioned selfishness. Many conservatives have no sense of community or responsibility for the less fortunate. Republicans are more likely to condemn victims of extreme poverty rather than sympathize with them. Under such leadership, this country has abandoned the most vulnerable members of society. Why should we expect them to efficiently handle a natural disaster that victimizes the same people?
More importantly, their lack of concern for the poor is what created this mess in the first place. Many of those who remained in New Orleans do not own cars and have no access to public transportation. Maybe if the people in New Orleans were not dirt poor they would have the means to be able to heed the warnings and evacuate the city. The right wing of this country has aggravated the effects of poverty by continually nibbling away at the safety net that aids the poor, while doing nothing about the lowest inflation-adjusted minimum wage in nearly fifty years.
The most crippling consequence of this conservative ideology is the way our resources are used. Conservatives support spending money to "liberate" foreign countries, rather than ensuring the safety and security of American citizens. Our involvement in Iraq has stretched us thin in terms of resources and funds. An editorial that appeared in The New York Times estimated that 30 percent of our National Guard and 50 percent of its resources are preoccupied in Iraq. I always believed that the National Guard should guard the nation, not secure a foreign country. Furthermore, the funds that are being spent in Iraq could have been used to ensure the safety of New Orleans. Last year, the Army Corp of Engineers requested millions to fix the levees and secure the city, but they were denied. The administration and the Congress chose not to make the security of New Orleans a priority.
Aside from the war, other conservative priorities have enhanced this problem. The conservative goal of giving more power to the states put control in the hands of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. The top priority of this incompetent woman is making sure officers "shoot to kill" when they face looters who are in desperate need of food, clothing and supplies. The fact is conservatives have decided to give billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthy, rather than making sure our states can handle emergencies. Conservatives are more concerned with capital formation and economic efficiency than they are with ensuring that every citizen is taken care of.
While the American people are so obsessed with values, conservative policies are beginning to damage the security of our nation. Conservatives cannot say a word about the federal government's inability to handle this problem. When you support a party that advocates a weak federal government and allocates money to those who need it the least, you can point the finger at only one person - yourself.
The utopian dream in a nutshell. W's rolodex with 280,000,000 + names in it and he calls them every morning.
"Hey Buddy, this is George. You OK?"
Gee, they've blamed Bush, so now they're turning on conservative philosophy.
Somebody needs to send this author a copy of the Aesop's Fable about the grasshopper and the ant.
I have been waiting for the true conservatives to come out of hiding, so many threads that tout, give-to-the-poor-"victims" it's the Christian thing to do.
"Conservative ideology promotes disregarding and alienating the poor and disadvantaged."
This great country was founded on and survived BECAUSE conservative Republicans BUILD IT BY HARD WORK and did NOT believe in the great government giveaways!
STOP giving to ingrates that were complaining LOUDLY to anyone who would listen because Houston got their debit cards before Dallas did. And that is a substantiated fact! Oh but if we just had a conservative govt now that would say, we took you in (it was the christian thing to do) we housed, fed, and clothed you (it was the christian thing to do ) we offered you to live on a cruise ship (you declined) we offered to send you to a state that is offering jobs (you declined) we are giving you, social security checks, unemployment checks, $2,000 debit cards, welfare checks, we are giving you FREE medecine , medical care, schools, we are putting you up in homes, apts, motels, hotels and much much more, and still you complained because you had to wait in line for several hours to receive the debit cards.(again substantiated not rumour).
The true conservative would say you received MORE than enough, the federal government will not overtax the people to help to pay to support you for all your life. And add insult to injury you aren't even a resident of the great state of Texas. The residents are picking up the tab.
This idea of give them all the help they need for the rest of their lives is guess what folks? A socialist idea! Oh I know go ahead and attack and say how selfish I am and how un-christian I am and whatever ask you care to call me that makes you feel better and superior. But in the end the so-called victims have been given more than enough already and they need to support themselves, their families (not the govt family) need to help them, and we need to use all the donations and federal money to rebuild NOT only LA but MS, AL and FL!!!
Concerning Simmons, I have but one thing to say: "The mind is a terrible thing!"
It must suck to be so totally, utterly, absolutely, positively confused.
A man who does not understand anymore about human nature than this blowhard should be fired instantly.
This could have been written by a spoiled brat who knows nothing but thinks he knows it all. The mind of a 60s dopehead.
It really is quite a collection of unsubstantiated allegations, leftist cliches, and outright twaddle. If it's conservatism that is responsible for the squalid lives of the black people in New Orleans, then why is it that now that they are here (I'm in Dallas), they are marveling at how clean, hospitable, kind and efficient everyone is? Maybe they're agog because it's the first time they've been forced to venture off the Democratic welfare plantation run by the corrupt clowns in Louisiana and gotten a glimpse of what life can be like when you live in a state built on self-reliance, with a government run by Republicans.
Psychologists once performed an experiment on some people; they had them wear glasses that inverted their view of everything. After wearing them a while, it seemed just as though everything was right side up.
Liberal ideology is like those glasses. People who wear it for a while think that black is white, conservatives are liberal and Bush is Clinton.
They need help, but not the kind of help they think they need.
I can't decide whether I want to barf or laugh. It seems that it is all our fault, even if it is Katherine Blanco's fault.
The Devil made her to do it!
No wonder Ron Zook ended up in Illinois.
He forgot to include "Long live Mao!"
Also missing is the phrase "running yellow dog capitalist."
And where is "Death to America?"
The left is slipping a bit.
The "do not own cars" is a crock. Just look at the pictures of the inundated neighborhoods. There are hundreds of inundated cars, all parked on the streets or in parking lots, pretty well showing they were mostly functional. They weren't used to evacuate their owners because those owners didn't want to leave and got caught. At some point people need to take responsibility for their own welfare.
The remark about public transportation is just as much of a crock. All anybody needs to do is look at the pictures of Lake Nagin and realize that the NO mayor didn't use approximately 600 municipal and school buses that were available to him for the evacuation.
I'm an alum of the University of Illinois ('65 undergrad and '67 law). Garbage like this and the law shcool giving the Witch an honorary doctorate a few years ago are reasons why I don't contribute to them.
A fair question. Forty or fifty years ago, any self-respecting freshman at any State College would have been embarrassed to have his or her name associated with such inane, poorly-reasoned, and emotional bleatings. Adolescence was to be endured and shed in high school, not carried into adulthood. For those of you too young to remember, it was once commonly assumed that, at a certain age, the prospect of personal responsibility for one's life and family would force all but the most infantile and criminally-minded to grow up. Now, an infantile view of the world - Liberalism - is embraced and encouraged in our Universities, and promoted in our news media. And its waters have polluted our culture no less than Hurricane Katrina has ruined the alleys and yards of New Orleans.
When I read stuff like this it makes it easy to justify thowing away that solicitation for an alumni donation. This is the standard cr*p you read in every student newspaper at every major state-run university in the land. This just happens to be the University of Illinois, but it could just has easily been published in the Daily Collegian (Penn State). If this is what passes for critical thinking and respect for the facts, then they are doing a lousy job at the nation's colleges.
Matt Simmons is a senior in LAS. His column appears every Thursday. He can be reached at opinoins@dailyillini.com.
Please join me in praying this person enters a Graduate Degree Program. Otherwise he will be turned loose on the world in too short of time.
Colleges and Universities no longer should be seen as places of higher education but as a means of breeding liberals in captivity where there antics and social habits can be observed by the general populace. While at the same time keeping people safe from them.
What a stunningly ignorant little drunken fratboy.
It is conservative who are the BACKBONE of charity and community -- but we shouldn't let facts get in the way of yet one more idiotic liberal rant.
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