McCain said
Jun. 3rd, 2008 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmation"We must also prepare, far better than we have, to respond quickly and effectively to a natural calamity. When Americans confront a catastrophe they have a right to expect basic competence from their government. Firemen and policemen should be able to communicate with each other in an emergency. We should be able to deliver bottled water to dehydrated babies and rescue the infirm from a hospital with no electricity. Our disgraceful failure to do so here in New Orleans exposed the incompetence of government at all levels to meet even its most basic responsibilities." -- John McCain
Applause. I'm not planning to vote for McCain, and I may never applaud him again, but he earned my applause for saying this.
Though he said it not "here in New Orleans" but 2 cities over in Kenner, Louisiana.
Also, contrary to the McCain campaign official transcript above, he spoke it as "deliver hot bottled water to dehydrated babies". Whatever.
And more importantly, as bad as the "natural calamity" was, the man-made one was very much worse.
And McCain twice voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine Federal, State, and local response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. He also voted against emergency relief after the disaster, funding communications for disaster first reponders, and other relevent items.
Perhaps you think such proposals should be opposed on the grounds of keeping the government small.
Perhaps you think William Howard Taft was a damn Commie for authorizing the army to bring food and tents to San Francisco after the great earthquake.
Perhaps you think when the shit hits the fan, it is better to let our citizens die of from lack basic necessities than to spend government funds to save their lives. Maybe you have no problem with America being a country whose government leaves the corpses of its people who die unnecessarily bloated in the sun, to be eaten by rats and dogs.
If so, I disagree with you. But I'd have a modicum more respect for you had the courage to damn well admit it.
Applause. I'm not planning to vote for McCain, and I may never applaud him again, but he earned my applause for saying this.
Though he said it not "here in New Orleans" but 2 cities over in Kenner, Louisiana.
Also, contrary to the McCain campaign official transcript above, he spoke it as "deliver hot bottled water to dehydrated babies". Whatever.
And more importantly, as bad as the "natural calamity" was, the man-made one was very much worse.
And McCain twice voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine Federal, State, and local response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. He also voted against emergency relief after the disaster, funding communications for disaster first reponders, and other relevent items.
Perhaps you think such proposals should be opposed on the grounds of keeping the government small.
Perhaps you think William Howard Taft was a damn Commie for authorizing the army to bring food and tents to San Francisco after the great earthquake.
Perhaps you think when the shit hits the fan, it is better to let our citizens die of from lack basic necessities than to spend government funds to save their lives. Maybe you have no problem with America being a country whose government leaves the corpses of its people who die unnecessarily bloated in the sun, to be eaten by rats and dogs.
If so, I disagree with you. But I'd have a modicum more respect for you had the courage to damn well admit it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
p.s.
Date: 2008-06-04 09:30 pm (UTC)Perhaps downsizing the pentagon is the answer.
Re: p.s.
Date: 2008-06-04 11:56 pm (UTC)"Only the US government could have built Cabrini Green."
Absolutely. But I agree for probably different reasons than you do. You doubtless feel public housing "doesn't work" whereas it does work in other parts of the western world. At least it works a hell of a lot better than Cabrini Green. You have to go to the third world to find that kind of squalor.
What doesn't work is the way we do some of these things. The world is bigger than America.
Re: p.s.
Date: 2008-06-05 04:21 pm (UTC)Been there. Not even close. The level of violence and hopelessness in American housing projects is unsurpassed anywhere in the First World. The stats bear this out.
Before I moved to new Orleans I lived in Vancouver, Canada, a city of 2.2 million people. The public housing there runs the gamut from fairly raggedy (Raymur Park and Campbell Avenue projects, which are old-school high rise affair, seedy, but a paradise compared to Cabrini Green or the Iberville)) to very nice mixed-income public housing 'co-ops' like False Creek and numerous, free standing co-op buildings around town. I have friends in these places and they're quite pleased with them. They pay very reasonable rent for clean, well maintained apartments in the city core, the type of neighborhoods which in most American cities are the preserve of the very rich and the desperately poor.
As I mentioned, Vancouver is a city of 2.2 million people. It averages about 30 homicides a year.
The problem I'm having here is you keep throwing out examples of things 'government can't do' when what you really mean is American government can't or won't do it. I agree that there are limits on what 'government' can do, but I'm not arguing in favor of government programs to make me taller or more popular at parties. I'm arguing for responsible government stewardship of the collective well being of it's own citizens which is after all what we pay all those taxes for. Are these things perfect in other countries? No, of course not. but my own lived experience is that other nations do things like health care, public housing, and various other quality of life issues a lot better than we do, and yet we refuse to even consider looking into these things because of pigheaded ideological shiboleths. I call that 'stuck on stupid.'
I understand that the 'small government' and 'government is inherently innefficient' paradigms are viewed by many in America as attitudes growing out of our past as rugged individualists (a past that's lagely a myth. All the rugged individualists in the west would be sucking their water out of a cactus without massive, publically funded water projects for example, and I'd be writing this by ink in candlelight without the Tennessee Valley Authority) but I have to tell you, it feels very similar to attitudes I observed touring the Soviet Union with a Canadian jazz band in 1985. The Soviets had very little faith in 'government' (which of coure was a massive clusterfuck). Stuff was always falling apart because of shabby construction, kind of like the levees here, or that bridge in Minneapolis. Hoover Dam is next probably. Didn't the ACE build that too?) and felt they had no power to change things. They were on their own. Some public building would collapse because the contractor put too much sand in the cement and they'd just say "what do you expect? That's the government. It's just the way they are."
It's a form of learned helplessness masquerading as worldly cynicism.
Re: p.s.
Date: 2008-06-06 02:14 pm (UTC)Excellent analysis of the phenomenon well said. Kudos.