If you vote for monkeys, you’re going to get bananas
I had an interesting dinner with one of my Republican friends last night. (Yes, I do have them.) Of course, the conversation eventually turned to New Orleans and Bush and his comment “Nobody could have forseen the levees would fail.”
Since it’s been clear for many years that the levees were going to fail if a hurricane hit, and that the Bush administration had cut funding that Congress had in their legislation to provide for levee reinforcement, I asked her, “How can we appropriate $230 million for a highway to nowhere Alaska, and can’t do $60 million to shore up the levees.”
Her answer: the people of Louisiana are stupid for electing incompetent congress members who can’t bring home the bacon.
I hate to admit it, but she’s right.
If there’s one thing that’s become abundantly clear in the past five years (OK, I’ll also admit it’s been pretty obvious for long before that) it’s that government is no different from the private sector in the way it operates. It’s every man for himself. If you are weak, and the people of New Orleans certainly were, your congressional delegation will be weak as well. A representative from a poor district is probably going to be a poor representative.
Don Young of Alaska can get whatever he wants for his district, whether it needs it or not. Multiply that by over 6,000 pet projects in a transportation bill, and you can see the power of many congressmen. Seems like everyone but Louisiana got theirs.
The NY Times noted yesterday that perhaps it’s now time to look at the pork that’s been brought home by various legislators, including our own James Oberstar, and redirect some of that to New Orleans.
But, what are the chances that we’d give up a recreational bike trail in Minnesota to save lives in Louisiana, do you think? I’m betting on the bikers.
It’s economic and political Darwinism pure and simple–the survival of the fittest. QED.
Isn’t it odd that that’s clearly the reality of our life in the United States…especially when contrasted with what so many Republican leaning voters believe about Darwin’s other theories of evolution?
Well, Bush has declared next Friday a National Day of Prayer. While you are on your knees praying to the creationists’ God, be sure to ask him if he’d please send some better congressmen to New Orleans than the monkeys they have representing them now.
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