For the record, this article in the New York Times---Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit---upsets me too. In fact, his speech in Biloxi is far more interesting for the subtext than its actual content.
[quote from article Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit begins]
Mr. Bush praised the optimism and grit of the people of Mississippi, and he reaffirmed his belief in neighborly cooperation as well as government help. “A year ago, I committed our federal government to help you,” he said. “I said we have a duty to help the local people recover and rebuild. I meant what I said.”
For truly effective rebuilding, he went on, “there has to be a partnership with the federal government and the state and local governments. Here’s my attitude about the partnership. You know better than the people in Washington the needs of your communities. I’d rather listen to local mayors and county commissioners than folks sitting in Washington, D.C., about what this part of Mississippi wants.”
Acknowledging the shortcomings of the federal government’s response, Mr. Bush said every department in his administration “came up with practical reforms, ways to do things better.”
“The truth of the matter is, we can work together and will, but when disaster strikes, the first people that you rely upon, the people that matter most, are your friends,” Mr. Bush said at another point. “It’s friends helping friends that turns out to make an enormous difference in saving lives and helping to get by the trauma of the first days.”
[quote ends (emphasis added)]
My, he is a Republican, isn't he?
And I am prepared to believe that there was a time in the history of this country---perhaps at the turn of the last century and during its earliest pre-Depression years----when no one would have expected the government to solve problems of this sort. It would have been all about the community. But things have changed since then. And I am not sure what help friends can give friends when everyone in the community has suffered tremendous losses.
The thing about being a Democrat is that the Democratic representatives to the U.S. Congress so often make you want to sit down and weep with frustration or else run around sticking straws in your hair and tearing things. Sometimes it seems that they take advantage of the fact that American liberals have no viable options. There is simply nowhere else for the intelligent liberal or progressive to turn.
The problem isn't the Democrats' platform or their beliefs or the truths they hold to be self evident; according to me, they have the more acceptable objectives and the more laudable ideals. It's just that they so often fall short when it comes down to the fundamental task: actually doing the work of representing the people who voted for them and who are forced---having done so--- to depend on them to do that.
As usual, I owe the ready availability of grist to my mill to HuffPost.
The facts in evidence:
First, a blog by Nancy Pelosi, bashing the President and the Bush Administration specifically and the GOP generally for inept dispersal of federal funds to Katrina victims, which we all already know, thanks mainly to Spike Lee.
I have nothing against her personally. What follows is a reaction to what she says in this specific blog, and not even so much to that, as to what it implies she thinks Democrats like me want to hear. Reading it caused me to lose my temper, but not with the writer or rather not only with her.
[quote begins from blog by Nancy Pelosi, "While the President Pats Himself on the Back"]
House Democrats have been examining many of the Administration's failures affecting our Gulf Coast citizens. As everyone who lives there and has volunteered or visited already knows, in order to rate the Administration's performance, there needs to be a grade lower than "F." Last week, House Democrats formed a Waste, Fraud and Abuse Truth Squad, chaired by Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Dennis Cardoza (D-CA). They will conduct oversight of the Bush Administration's handling of taxpayer dollars, giving the Golden Drain Award to those who fail to provide meaningful oversight or hold the Administration accountable despite documented instances of waste, fraud and abuse.
[quote ends (emphasis added)]
Gaaaah! NO. "Golden Drain Awards" are for newspapers and media pundits and voters to bestow; the House Democrats---who have access to resources provided to them for exactly that purpose---need to concentrate on fixing the problem, not gleefully announcing a new plan to stand on the sidelines and jeer. What are these people thinking? Do they think voters want to hear this? We can get our entertainment elsewhere; we need for our representatives to be serious.
Do they not realize how frivolous such an undertaking sounds, given the desperate straits of Katrina victims? Sitting around picking holes in what's already been done is--again---for the media and the voters to do; and why? BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE THE DIRECT POWER OF A REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS TO EFFECT CHANGE. It's something you do when you're on the sidelines.
But people in Congress are not on the sidelines; by definition, they're in a position of power, even when they're the minority power. The Democratic party collectively may consider itself to be on the sidelines, but that's no excuse for individual Democrats not to be busying themselves all the hours God sends trying to FIX PROBLEMS.
What I want to hear from Democrats is boasting about many, many crucial bipartisan efforts initiated by them to help the helpless individual victims of Katrina; and about the enormous efforts they've made against all odds to reach out to Congressional Republicans. When they've done that, they can take whatever steps are required to hold the Administration "accountable", provided that they can also demonstrate how such "accountability" is going to fix actual problems.
I was pissed by the attempt to impeach Clinton because it bogged Congress down with stupid irrelevant crap when there were plenty of actual issues that they ought to have been working on. Instead, Republicans wasted everyone's time trying to discredit Clinton. And in the event, he didn't get impeached. That was enough of a waste of public time, attention, and resources to last me the rest of my life. I want to see Democrats doing the opposite, even if in (the short term) it helps the Republicans avoid making mistakes.
I know---okay, trust--- that there are many Democrats working overtime doing exactly this. Unfortunately, Congressional Democrats seem to have bought into the notion that voters don't care about results, let alone the processes that get you there. And this blog certainly highlights for me the disjunct between what I as a Democrat expect of Democrats in Congress and what they think I want.
And this is the sort of thing I personally do not need to hear.
[quote begins from Pelosi blog, "While the President Pats Himself on the Back..."]
These reports should serve as a reminder to President Bush that a photo op on the South Lawn of the White House is not going to help the tens of thousands of survivors who are still waiting for housing aid, for their schools and hospitals to re-open, for electricity to come back on in their homes and businesses, and for safe drinking water. The President promised a plan for the region, but all there is to show for it are 10,000 empty, unused trailers in an airfield in Arkansas. I will be traveling to the Gulf Coast today, as will many House Democrats, not to smile or pretend we're doing all we can, but to listen firsthand to residents about what Congress needs to do. As survivors are rebuilding their lives, House Democrats will work to rebuild trust and faith that the federal government is truly working for the people of the Gulf Coast region.
[quote ends]
It's the opposite of reassuring, implying as it does that they are only just now realizing that there is a problem. Reading this I thought, a year has passed and they are just doing this now? Didn't they know before now that the people of New Orleans weren't receiving the promised help, but only more broken promises? Even I knew that.
And I also know that the Katrina victims can't eat "trust" and "faith" or float to safety on them if the levees break again.
Am I supposed to be impressed that House Democrats are apparently just now realizing that it would be a good idea for them to monitor closely what's going on with funding to Katrina victims? Or that it might be a good idea to find out from the victims what's happening with them? Or that they still don't have any clear ideas about how to do a better job than has been done up to yet?
The conclusion of this piece is the part that makes me grind my teeth almost as hard as I do when I hear what the other side is saying:
[quote begins from Pelosi blog,
One year later, the Gulf Coast continues to need the financial, health care, education, housing and small business support that they deserve to turn devastated neighborhoods into thriving communities. And we still need an independent commission, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to find out what exactly went wrong, why it went wrong, and how to fix it.
I can even give a hint about where the biggest problem is. Start at the top.
[quote ends]
Don't we know what went wrong: insufficient preparation, no plan, Army Corps of Engineer, poor people without transportation, no buses, jurisdictional bickering or back and forthing between the state and the federal government, resources deployed elsewhere, overextended insurance companies, and on and on? What is an independent commission going to tell us that's different from that? Does it matter to the Katrina vicitms exactly which persons at which agencies have let the ball drop, and why?
Those are rhetorical questions, of course.
What I want to hear from Democrats is how, specifically, the problems can be solved. And I want to see them reaching out to Republicans who can help them get the job done. Sometimes it looks, it really looks, as if the Democrats in Congress aren't all that interested in doing anything that might conceivably make things better, since Republicans would inevitably claim the credit. I expect it seems that way to other voters as well.
I don't give a damn who claims the credit. If the parties could work together, I wouldn't give a damn which one is in power. I'm sick of them building their power bases on the backs of the voters.
Individual members of Congress have a duty to their constituents that ought to supersede their obligations to the party and that duty is to REPRESENT. I'm sick to death of the squabbling; if the Democrats currently in office want to remain there, they need to start showing us that they know how to do the job of fixing problems, and not after they've stood by and watched Republicans fail: right away, as soon as the problems occur.
Here's something that the minority party always tends to forget: YOU'RE THE GOVERNMENT TOO.
And speaking of accountability, if Democrats now in Congress can't get the job done, then maybe we need better Democrats to represent us. I for one, being sick of the squabbling, am going to start demanding results from Democrats; and deducting points for gestures (starting with the "Golden Drain" awards).
If that wasn't enough, there's also this.
Adam Hanft: The High Cost of Bashing Wal-Mart: Another Democratic Miscalculation. As the man says, it's too late to discover that Wal-Mart is a menace to the community, particularly now that they've been called out and are trying to mend their ways. And the very fact that the focus is on Wal-Mart and not other corporations I could reel off without thinking shows just how far Democrats underestimate the voters.
It's too late to make "Midnight madness is killing my country!" a rallying cry.
[quote begins from blog by Adam Hanft: The High Cost of Bashing Wal-Mart: Another Democratic Miscalculation]
I can't think of a single national election where the Democrats gained any real ground by taking the evil corporation route. And the choice of Wal-Mart over Halliburton or Bechtel is a curious one. Which leads us to one unavoidable conclusion: Wal-Mart has learned and changed, but the Democrats haven't.
[quote ends]
What he said.
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