Say Anything Blog

Sigh...

John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and head of a leading Democratic think tank, says Democrats must start by casting Bush's brand of conservatism -- emphasizing an "ownership society" elevating individualism and private enterprise -- as fundamentally flawed and hostile to society's collective responsibility to help citizens, especially the neediest.
In its place, Podesta says, Democrats must offer an activist, reform-minded government agenda that includes new energy, infrastructure and homeland defense policies.

Katrina "changed the future," said Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). "Enough is enough: No more Bush-business-as-usual."

Paul from Wizbang (himself a Katrina refugee) responds:

The whole welfare state should be on trial here. It was (overwhelmingly) the people who have been taught their whole lives that someone would "give them a check" who gathered like sheep in the Dome waiting for the government to solve their problems. Guess what? Government, predictably, failed them.

Who in their right mind would argue that the answer to these problems is to make people MORE dependent on government? That's insanity in its purest form.

The answer isn't to make poor people more dependent, the answer is to make the poor people more self sufficient! (Amazing I know)

Spot on.

Read the whole thing.

I'd add that all this focus on criticizing the federal government (and the Bush administration) is going to do more harm than good. Creating more bulky, centralized disaster relief and rescue bureaucracy at the federal level will only make the system less efficient and less responsive. Primary disaster planning and response absolutely must be kept at the local level. Which means that the local level officials who dropped the ball with Katrina (which resulted in the most loss of life) must be held accountable for what went wrong.

All this focus on Bush and the federal government isn't accomplishing that.

Update:

More from David Brooks:

Katrina was the most anticipated natural disaster in American history, and still government managed to fail at every level.

For the brutal fact is, government tends toward bureaucracy, which means elaborate paper flow but ineffective action. Government depends on planning, but planners can never really anticipate the inevitable complexity of events. And American government is inevitably divided and power is inevitably devolved...

So of course we need limited but energetic government. But liberals who think this disaster is going to set off a progressive revival need to explain how a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America's faith in big government.

Update:

McQ from Q and O:

Waiting on someone at a higher level to A) have the understanding of your situation and B) have the sense of urgency your situation brings isn't going to happen. Individuals in disaster prone areas need to accept and act on the responsibility choosing to live there brings and not depend on anyone else, especially government. Act locally and perhaps the response nationally will supplement that. Throw it all in government's lap and expect precisely what you've seen in the Hurricane Katrina scenario.