Personal Responsibility in the Ownership Society

Obviously, I've followed the aftermath of Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans intently. Most Americans have. Today, I see that the spin job has begun in force, with the Administration doing its damndest to lay blame on Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana.

This began on Saturday, when an anonymous White House souce told the Washington Post that Blanco had not yet declared a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana. This is further evidence of the degree of disconnect and lack of information pervading the White House. Gov. Blanco declared an emergency the Saturday before, and Bush activated FEMA as the controlling authority in the disaster shortly thereafter.

This isn't to say that Louisiana's response shone brightly during the cataclysm that followed. Through incompetence, lack of preparation, or simply being overwhelmed, the state's response was decidely lacking. The City of New Orleans is similarly guilty, though I have a hard time laying full blame on a place that was turned into a lake over the course of a few hours.

One tragedy that we'll lose sight of in all of this is that largely because of how this was covered by the media, we won't get to say that this was the people of New Orleans' finest hour. Plunged into a state of destruction and anarchy, with corpses floating past, the stench of rot undoubtedly becoming overpowering in the 90 degree heat, and no help in sight, tens of thousands of people worked together to ensure that food, water, and clean clothing made it into neighborhoods and emergency shelters where people were dying of dehydration and standing in soaking, reeking clothes. Looting undeniably happened in the City of New Orleans, but how many more people would have died if the grocery stores had remained untouched? How much faster would disease have been able to spread if people hadn't been able to change out of sewage-soaked clothing and into something that wasn't crawling with germs?

I am unable to imagine what it is like to wake up in a world where the structures that define civilization have washed away. Law enforcement, supplies, people in authority; all were gone. Those who were there seemed generally unable to help the population, overwhelmed by the metaphorical and real fires that kept springing up throughout the city, and watching their neighbors die in the heat.

To see the administration try to spin responsibility for this disaster away from itself is sickening. FEMA was clearly posted as the controlling authority for the region on August 27. The Department of Homeland Security, of which FEMA is a part, has legal authority for coordinating federal, state, and local response in natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

It is true that the state and local agencies failed to save the day. This absolves the federal government not one bit. It is insufficient for the President's proxies to imply that because one of the poorest states in the nation didn't respond appropriately that the federal government has no reason to step in to prevent the widespread death that occurred in New Orleans. Americans were dying and President George Bush would have you believe that this is not something that the federal government has a duty to get involved in. Shame on him.

This is conservatism in a nut shell. This is the crusade of the small government warriors who want maximum freedom because they are already wealthy. They don't think they need government services and regulation "intruding" in their lives, so they push to shrink what they call "feel good" government activities like FEMA. They appoint political hacks and friends of friends to important positions because they won't be the beneficiaries of the kinds of assistance that those groups provide. George Bush can't wait to sit on millionaire Senator Trent Lott's new front porch once he rebuilds his house. But what about the family who doesn't know if they'll be able to replace their trailer? What about the family who missed an insurance payment and won't be able to replace their house?

In the Ownership Society, only those who suffer are accountable for their choices. Look at how Michael Brown blamed those who couldn't or wouldn't leave during the evacuation. Poor people have personal responsibility in the Ownership Society, but the rich, like Brown, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the purported men in charge, are not even responsible for doing their jobs.

The slow motion destruction of New Orleans is the logical outcome of modern conservatism. If local resources are overwhelmed, ill equipped, or badly run, that's just too bad for Americans on the ground. If you die, you should have had better leadership. If you have no water, you should have stocked up ahead of time. If you go into an abandoned grocery store to get food or take an abandoned bus and load it with complete strangers to escape the city, you are a looter who can rightfully be shot in the ownership society.

What is the point of having a government at all if its only role is to reward the rich for their good planning while the poor suffer and die in squalor? None at all. New Orleans is the ownership society. New Orleans is conservatism on vivid display: abandonment, death, and destruction for those without the resources to save themselves, with ample condemnation on their way out of this world.