Benign Neglect, New Orleans Style
Check out the meaning of “benign neglect” in The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition;
and you’ll find that it is defined as:
A policy or attitude of ignoring a situation instead of assuming
responsibility for managing or improving it.
If that definition doesn’t apply to George W. Bush’s FEMA, one wonders
what does.
There’s nothing new about benign neglect. Folks around during
the 1970s are familiar with the term.
Or should be.
The concept first appeared
during the Nixon administration and was penned by Sen. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan in a recommendation advising Nixon as to how
exactly his administration should treat the urban poor. Moynihan
felt that ignoring the plight of the urban poor (read African
Americans) was the best, policy, since he thought that the Great
Society programs of the 1960s did not work and in fact could not
work. In other words African Americans were so mired in poverty,
crime and dysfunctional behavior patterns, that no government
program or programs could get them out of it.
Richard Nixon was only too happy to carry out Moynihan’s ideas.
And Republicans as a rule liked such policies because they
allowed the GOP to cut social spending and play the race card at
the same time.
Nixon realized, of course, what Lyndon Johnson realized,
that the Civil Rights act of 1964 would cause the South to go
Republican; solidly so, for many years to come.
Benign neglect, with its racial
and anti-government, anti-social spending components, helped
fuel the candidates of all GOP presidents from Richard Nixon
right down to the current administration of George W. Bush. The
policy of benign neglect also tacked on very nicely with the
anti-government, anti-tax attitudes of the 1970s and 80s. All of
which benefited the GOP.
Added to the mix has been the general domination of GOP
administrations by political advisors drawn from a number of
right-wing institutes such as the Cato Institute, the American
Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institute.
These rightist think-tanks
exist for the purpose of putting out propaganda aimed at the
destruction of New Deal and the Great Society. They dominate the
GOP and they are positively opposed to governmental programs
which might offer some aid to African Americans, the poor, the
ill and the disadvantaged who live, for the most part in major
metropolitan areas.
Comes now Hurricane Katrina. It pretty much wiped
out New Orleans, the home of thousands of African Americans who
happened to be poor, and dependent on programs such
as social security, food stamps, public transportation,
and public hospitals.
Not to mention a good
publicly funded levee system.
Now look at FEMA The fact that FEMA, the federal agency that is
supposed to deal with emergencies brought about by acts of
nature, performed so poorly, should come as no surprise to
anyone.
FEMA was not thought to be all
that important, in the Bush administration, and as a result, its
upper level staff was and is lead by political hacks. Yes, that
poor soul Mike Brown resigned today, but what about his
underlings?
Years of underfunding by GOP administrations, coupled with the
use of FEMA as a dumping ground for GOP fund raisers and
political hacks, coupled with lack of investment in levee
construction and maintenance turned out to be little more than a
disaster just waiting to happen.
No one can say, however that we weren’t warned. Everyone knew
what might happen in the case of an F4 or F5 hurricane, striking
New Orleans, but nobody really gave a damn.
Hurricane Katrina took out a major portion of New Orleans as
well as large areas of Alabama and Mississippi.
Things are improving more as
time goes on, but recovery is going to take a long time.
Those displaced will have a hard time adjusting to a new
life no matter
where they turn up.
Just perhaps, something good might come out of Katrina.
With any luck, Katrina
will consign the anti-tax,
anti-government political ideologies of the last 30 years
to the dustbin of history, where they belong.
Punditwalla--