America's Broken Democracy Posted by Lorelei Kelly

The state of our union is shameful in New Orleans.

I got back from New Orleans this past Sunday. I was there to see relatives--but had plenty of time to drive through miles and miles of abandoned neighborhoods: boats piled on medians, houses piled on cars sitting amidst intersections, a lonely intrepid individual lovingly sweeping his driveway with a windowless white FEMA trailer on blocks behind him. Rescue team graffiti scrawled on every housefront like cliff-notes for the obituary of an entire city.

Here's some of what the president said yesterday:

We're removing debris and repairing highways and rebuilding stronger levees.  We're providing business loans and housing assistance.  Yet as we meet these immediate needs, we must also address deeper challenges that existed before the storm arrived.

Wouldn't it be great if one of those "deeper challenges" were to jettison the anti-government mindset of his conservative base?  And to ask them to quit using that tired old rhetoric about "nameless, faceless bureaucrats" who scheme and waste instead of solving problems.  It is, after all, difficult to have a discussion about inherently government functions with a group of Americans who don't believe in the public sector.

But the dire situation in Louisiana is  not an accident.  It is an outcome.  For thirty years, the conservative movement has seen government as the competition--and like any leveraged buy out, their goal has been to eliminate the competition.  That means privatize the public sector.  Spin it off, flip it, outsource it--preferrably to corporate political allies   Then Katrina hits.

And who has the Katrina contracts? (bereft FEMA even outsourced the contracting) Bechtel, Fluor, Shaw, CH2MHill, Titan.  The names are familiar because they are the  same companies running wild and free in Iraq.

The privatization of our government has gone too far.  Our inexplicable betrayal of New Orleans is the polar opposite of what Al Gore envisioned when he initiated the early 90's National Performance Review--later known as  "reinventing government" .  Its goal was to adapt efficiency principles from the business world--customer service,benchmarks, management-labor partnerships --and apply them to government.  "Works better, costs less, and gets results" is a worthy goal.  Selling off the public sector to your friends is not.

A common ground idea: Good government Republicans and Democrats could join forces in reclaiming the need for problem-solving public service. After all,  free market claptrap on the right is as dated and unhelpful as claims about evil capitalism on the left.   Adam Smith--the economic guru of conservatives-- would be mortified to see what conservative ideologues have done with his thoughtful and socially-generous ideas about markets. Smith's goal was to have a carefully regulated free market aid in the development of a prosperous and inclusive society like an "invisible hand". Social philanthropy based on self-interest.  Now the social part is optional.

Bush went on to say:

In New Orleans and in other places, many of our fellow citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country.  The answer is not only temporary relief, but schools that teach every child, and job skills that bring upward mobility, and more opportunities to own a home and start a business.  As we recover from a disaster, let us also work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity.  (Applause.)

Yet just recently the Bush Administration rejected a Republican authored plan to buy-out destroyed properties--funding that would provide a secure baseline for communities to begin planning their future.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans--many poor and black--are not coming back.  It's not even an option because we made it so.

The conservative triumph in turning Americans against government is not a direct causal relationship.  But it has warped our expectations of collective social obligation.  Most Americans--similar to Adam Smith-- never intended for the "invisible hand" to be at the throat of our democracy like it is in New Orleans.

We also never meant for our miners to die while Canadian miners go into well-stocked underground oxygen rooms.  We never meant for first responders to lack radio spectrum because commercial interests object to sharing.  We never meant for an individual to live on $5.15 an hour in the richest country in the world.

Yet we can make government-commercial partnerships work when we want to: Staff were moving back into the blown up Pentagon in less than a year. The World Trade Center site is swept clean and rebuilding.

No, New Orleans fate is not  incompetence or corruption, it's a policy of deliberate neglect chosen by our elected leaders.

Comments

[J.]

I haven't followed the New Orleans rebuilding issue much, but I think you've hit upon it as an example of how the modern Repub party views the roles of govt and business - and it's a nasty, ugly relationship. I see Kennie-boy Lay smiling as he goes into court and think, the SOB really thinks he's going to get off because he's in tight with the Bush administration.

New Orleans does deserve better, however, I'm not comforted by the greedy "we deserve $30 billion for our city" attitude by the good "DINO" Senator Landrieu and the mayor down there. Hard to think that any city - even NYC - should get tens of billions of dollars for reconstruction from a natural disaster. At some point, the citizens of LA need to own up and dig into the issue, with tempered federal govt assistance. There's got to be a middle ground there, but it just seems that there are two extremes that can't agree on that middle ground.

[Ben]

Lorelei, thanks for this post.

I spent 2 weeks in the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi during January, and was utterly shocked at the mess that still exists there. As one of 115 students from Tufts University, I was witness to the incredible work that has been done by churchs, volunteers (especially AmeriCorps), and countless individuals from across the country who "just wanted to help."

The majority of our work was between Pass Christian and Biloxi. There entire neighborhoods are filled with FEMA blue tarp roofs and dotted with trailers. The once spectacular strip along Beach Highway 90 in Gulfport has just been cleared, and 200 yards inland along the highway, where hotels, homes, and restaurants once stood ... only debris remains (and lots of it). Working in Mississippi, we were all shocked and amazed. The region looks like it was hit by a storm yesterday, not 5 months ago.

When it comes to the SOTU, I try to bite my lip and be as deferrential as possible to the President. I try to wipe the slate clean and be ready to be inspired, to be lead, but President Bush missed that opportunity (with me, and I assume, with countless others). Katrina changed a region, but it should have changed a nation. To merely throw the region a bone with a quick paragraph (touting the federal governments effort) is a slap in the face of the good people I worked with and met. These people were Republicans, Democrats, Christians and Jews. None cared about a volunteers affiliation, so long as they wanted to help and would listen to a story.

It's a shame we missed an opportunity to begin a conversation that would unify this great country and speak to its highest ideals. Instead, the current administration went to the old playbook. It just shows they have a "pre-Katrina" mindset, and it is our job to have a "post-Katrina" mindset.

[rdf]

It is interesting to compare the public and government responses to Katrina and 9/11. In the case of 9/11 not only was there money and manpower made available for cleanup and reconstruction, but there were all sorts of business development programs put in place as well.

In the Gulf region the response has been much less focused. Most of the story has passed out of the public eye. While it is true that the task is many times larger, the response has not been anywhere near in proportion.

In addition, 9/11 caused an entire shakeup of the task of government. New programs and departments were created. Thousands of people were mobilized into new jobs like air marshalls and the like.

There has been no corresponding change after Katrina. The Army Corps of Engineers has not even been restructured, let alone FEMA or the National Guard.

I think there are two reasons. NYC is a more important region than the Gulf, both economically and symbolically. Many of the power elite have ties to NYC. So this was felt more personally by those in power. Those affected were more like them (bankers and stock brokers) rather than the poor and minority populations of the Gulf region.

Second, there is the issue of the political use of the disaster. 9/11 presented an external threat and could be used to modify public opinion so as to support the goals of the military/police sector. Fixing the Gulf is just a civil engineering issue, with no value politically.

[Timbo]

Bush and his crony regime would all end up behind bars if there were any justice in this society. It's a shame Democrats are so timid (spineless) in their denunciations of this lying criminal and his corrupt henchmen. To recall Clinton's impeachment and its origins and to see what Bush is getting away with is to really indict the Democratic party for inept leadership and cowardice. It's just pathetic.

[Dan Kervick]

Hey Ben. Tufts class of '81 here. Are you one of the guys who is always calling me for money? The check is in the mail!

[ts]

you're confusing "privatization" with "rampant cronyism"

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