Conservatives are fond of criticizing progressives who bring up issues of class. Conservatives like to say that class no longer matters in this country; that with enough grit and hard work and sunny optimism, anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But a quick glance at the video coming out of New Orleans should be enough to demonstrate that class still matters in America. The people who dwell at the margins of society are the same ones who were the most likely to find themselves trapped in the squalid conditions of the Superdome or the convention center.
It is to these people that government owes a special duty in times of emergency. Government is the only entity that has the capacity and the wherewithal to help the marginalized and the impoverished when disaster strikes. The private sector certainly won’t do it. The churches and non-profit organizations can play a supporting role, but they can’t mobilize troops or evacuate tens of thousands of people. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that government can be a force for good in peoples’ lives. The Grover Norquists of this country have managed to convince our leaders that government is the enemy. The resulting waves of tax cuts, combined with the billions of dollars in resources diverted to Iraq, has gutted our domestic infrastructure. One storm is all it took to send a major American metropolis into the chaos we associate with exotic places on the other side of the world.
Ideology has consequences. Ideology collides with the real world in ways that we cannot always predict. Ideology can wreck lives.
I leave for Europe tomorrow. I may blog again before I leave. Otherwise, I’ll be coming at you from the other side of the pond in a couple days.
Have a marvelous vacation, Mark!
Refugees will be arriving in many States, including Minnesota, soon. What a TEST of our own system that will prove to be. I just hope that we will measure up and not add to the angst that these folks are experiencing.