Bill O'Reilly said the most remarkable thing on his show yesterday:
First, the huge, bureaucratic government will never be able to protect you. If you rely on government for anything, anything, you're going to be disappointed, no matter who the president is.
For example, engineers knew for decades the levee system in Louisiana could not withstand a Category 5 hurricane, but nobody wanted to pony up the $20 billion to shore it up. That kind of decision happens all day, every day.
Second point, New Orleans is not about race. It's about class. If you're poor, you're powerless, not only in America, but everywhere on earth. If you don't have enough money to protect yourself from danger, danger's going to find you. And all the political gibberish in the world is not going to change that.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina should be taught in every American school. If you don't get educated, if you don't develop a skill, and force yourself to work hard, you're most likely be poor. And sooner or later, you'll be standing on a symbolic rooftop waiting for help.
Chances are that help will not be quick in coming.
What a God-Awfull way to look at the world.
TNR says that Katrina represents a real crisis to conservatism as an ideology. Preaching self-reliance and the uselessness of government is fine, until a problem so big comes along you can no longer pretend that indiviguals can deal with it. We need an efficient, well-funded government to deal with things like Katrina. Better government could have saved lives last week. But O'Reilly can't grasp that. It's just not So his only solution is not be poor. Don't get sick, don't lose your job, don't get old, because in O'Reilly's Darwinian world, you are doomed. Bill is saying to the guy on the roof his house, "sorry but you should have studied harder in school." Bill is preaching an ideology of despair. No help for anybody not as well off as O'Reilly Anybody want to sign up?
Not me. I think it really matters who the President is. That some Presidents are better at the job and have a governing philosophy that government can actually help people as opposed to enriching his friends. I say America can do better than Bill "Let the poor die" O'Reilly.
1 comment:
I wonder how Bill and Dub would do if thrust into the stone age? Is being a self-righteous ass a good survival skill?
Although I hate to say it, in one way Bill is right. In America, if you rely on the government for anything, you will be disappointed. Although it is a god-awful way to look at the world, and America in particular; it seems to have become a Darwin eat Wallace world.
So thus there is only one solution: kill the powerful and rich, with particular focus on the Republicans! Redistribute the wealth and take the compasionate (my ass) conservatives out of the gene pool. We will form a socialist new world! Quick, who wants to form a committee!
Post a Comment