Both parties entwined in mediocrity

The Anchoress has a very good post, and I suggest you read it all. I will just quote a few things that caught my eye.

Want to castigate FEMA director Michael Brown and accuse the Bushies of Republican Cronyism? Well, you can, and you’d be perfectly right to. But then you have to recall that he was confirmed by a voice vote when the congress was controlled by Democrats, and then you have to wonder what favors were exchanged by both parties in order to bring this mediocrity into his job....

Want to kvetch that FEMA should never have been melded into the Department of Homeland Security? Okay…but again, that action was accomplished by a bi-partisan act of congress (one which - it must be pointed out - now-critical voices helped to vote in). How about we think back to President Bush not wanting to even create the DHS, but being forced to because of political concerns. Because congress wanted it. Because America said she wanted it - wanted another bloated, mismanaged and ultimately impotent sprawling bureaucracy in which to incubate more and more mediocrity....

If you want to somehow blame the federal government for not getting food and water to the poor, trapped folks in the Superdome, you have to first, finally, listen to the American Red Cross when they say they were not permitted to give aid and comfort to Katrina’s victims - ordered out by the STATE Homeland Sercurity folks - because feeding them “might encourage them to stay…”
You’d have to consider that Louisiana’s strategy for evacuating folks was basically - “starve ‘em out.”

Do you want to complain about the vulnerability of our oil refineries, how they are all grouped in one area (nowhere near where YOU live), and they don’t process enough, anyway…then consider that between environmental lawsuits and NIMBYism no new refineries have been built in 30 years - that instead of having new refineries scattered about so that a single storm does not leave us vulnerable, we have aging refineries, grouped together - an invitation to disaster via terrorism or nature. Want to complain about gas prices? Remember back to the 1970’s when our leadership told us we would “work to no longer be dependent on foreign oil,” just before we stopped tapping our own immense resources. Why did we do that? To please the greenies! Did you contact your representatives and demand differently? No? Neither did I. Perhaps a handful of folks did, but not enough....

While representatives from the City of New Orleans, to the State of Louisiana, to the Congress, to the Senate, to the White House and the Federal Government (and all future-candidates in between) have been either pausing to consider the politics of a thing (admittedly, given the tenor of the times they are sometimes forced to), or have been stridently marching across the television screens to denounce, decry and denigrate, the sole image they manage to project - sadly - is one of staggering MEDIOCRITY.

Only the ordinary Americans - the ones who make up our First Response Teams, our National Guards, our Military, our Civil Patrols, our Community Relief Centers, our Churches, our Synagogues, our small businesses and such, have projected strength and stability. They have shown themselves to possess some extraordinary mettle - of being made of strong, fine, fire-tested stuff. They are not botoxed and liposuctioned beauties, they are not fine athletes, they are not super-educated intelligentsia. They are not well-connected hangers-on, they are not politically useful idiots. They are not complainers or fault-finders.

They are simply folk who see a need and do what needs to be done, with openness of heart and plenty of common sense. There is nothing spectacular about the food they are cooking to feed the hungry. There is nothing note-worthy about the garb they are bringing to clothe the naked. None of these people would be worth particular notice by the likes of the chattering classes who making so much noise - so much noise - on every available television and radio station in the nation....

Katrina has exposed a previously unattended-to, pus-filled sore on America’s backside, a growth called complacentus expediencea gimmee. For America to recover, that sore is going to have to be lanced and drained. I expect to hear lots of howling.

Evon commented This is the most sensible post on Katrina problems I’ve read so far. Thank you.

I agree with Evon