On a deeper level, Republicans suffer from a bad case of hurricane guilt. Once the Bush administration fumbled Katrina with a slow and inadequate political response and a poorly run relief operation in the crucial first hours and days, there was no way Republicans were ever going to make it up. Bush has visited New Orleans time and again and spent countless billions on it, yet the stain endures.
In Denver, Barack Obama could accuse the government of "sit[ting] on its hands while a major American city drown[ed] before our eyes" and generate almost no negative comment - even though it was basically a smear.
However disorganized the government's response, it was massive and well-intentioned; no one was sitting on their hands. But Democrats have political license to say anything about New Orleans, including Joe Biden yesterday declaring that its people had been "treated like hell."
Since we are experiencing another hurricane three years after Katrina and an upcoming election there are those drumming up this idea that failures of Katrina are Bush's failures. Bad thing is that the public has taken the bait.
Many in our government and other notorious people like to refer to the type of government we have as a democracy. That simply is not true but those ignorant of that fact believe that so they expect the federal government to have a national scope to solve every issue we encounter. This is particularly true for the Democrats who believe the primary source of governance to be the federal government. Those that realize we actually have a republic are rightly called Republicans. Their view is that the source of governance should primarily be at the state level as the Constitution intended. The Constitution guarantees 'a republican form of government' to each state but nowhere is the word 'democracy' or 'democratic' to be found in the document.
The federal government cannot send troops into a state without the state governor requesting it. It would be illegal for the President to do so. The failure for Katrina lies primarily on the governor of Louisianna at the time, Kathleen Blanco.
Many in our government and other notorious people like to refer to the type of government we have as a democracy. That simply is not true but those ignorant of that fact believe that so they expect the federal government to have a national scope to solve every issue we encounter. This is particularly true for the Democrats who believe the primary source of governance to be the federal government. Those that realize we actually have a republic are rightly called Republicans. Their view is that the source of governance should primarily be at the state level as the Constitution intended. The Constitution guarantees 'a republican form of government' to each state but nowhere is the word 'democracy' or 'democratic' to be found in the document.
The federal government cannot send troops into a state without the state governor requesting it. It would be illegal for the President to do so. The failure for Katrina lies primarily on the governor of Louisianna at the time, Kathleen Blanco.
The people's response was to elect a Republican, Bobby Jindal. We are now familiar with his handling of Gustav. I will leave up to you to compare and contrast the difference between a democrat or republican being in charge and decide who is representing the Katrina fiasco truthfully.
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