Well, its been weeks since Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans an upper cut that nobody knows if it will recover from (I am sure it will in some form - but will it be like it was before?). During the emergency, George W. Bush was invisible, and then fecklessly devoid of any leadership or ideas. America stood by, looking weak and unable to help, while people (mostly black) stood on their roofs surrounded by 20 feet of water, waiting for DAYS to be rescued. Food was not moved in (it was moved into the tsunami zone much faster) for days, nor was water. The most powerful nation on earth was reduced to begging for help from its citizens - asking working people to contribute a few dollars (while at the same time pushing the permanent repeal of the estate tax - something that affects a fraction of the population so small, that it is simply baffling that it has so much support). Meanwhile, oil companies moved to raise gas prices faster than ever. Within days, we were paying $3.00 plus a gallon, with prices going up $.60 - $1.00 per gallon all over the place (or in Georgia, going up $4.00 a gallon in some places).
So with this festering situation, a lack of leadership, devestated communities, and an obvious poverty of morality and depraved indifference to the lower income sphere in the US, where were the Democrats to step forward and provide a vision? Leadership? I saw a handful, but sometimes it was a pathetic back slapping session (Mary Landrieu, before Anderson Cooper called her on it), and sometimes it was too quiet (John Edwards gives great talks about poverty and class in America, but the guy needs to learn to scream from the roof tops sometimes).
So now, with Hurricane Rita bearing down on Texas, you can bet that two teams have been mobilized. First, I am sure that FEMA and federal aid will be ready and delivered in a timely manner. WE are not going to see a repeat of Katrina. Second, and probably even larger, a team of Bush hacks are out there right now, as we are speaking, writing the perfect bullhorn speech (you remember, when Bush stood in the rubble of the World Trade Center and gave his "and soon, the people who knocked these buildings down are going to hear from all of us" talk? Sure, it turned out to be bullshit, because we haven't caught bin Laden, al Zawahiri, etc. But it DID sound good and paints a great image, as a propogandist might view it). THat speech is being written, and there is nothing the Democrats can do about it.
They had a chance to fill the void. Instead, they acted like scared little children -lashing out at the President and FEMA, the easy targets, but not stepping up to insert and CONTRAST their vision for America.
Now, by 2006, it may be too late.
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