John LeBoutillier | September 8 2005
Hurricane Katrina is yet the latest example of ‘government’ - at all levels - failing the people ‘it’ is supposed to serve.
This is not a matter of Republican or Democrat; it is a matter of the expected arrogance, aloofness, diffidence, innate corruption, coldness - and sheer incompetence - that always permeates all levels of government.
Katrina is just the latest example.
Pick your poison: from bungled investigations to billion-dollar rip-offs, ‘government’ in our country is more often than not more a problem than a problem-solver.
Liberals - and this is why they have lost power nationally - still cling to the notion of using the government to ‘do good.’ But, even when well-intentioned, government efforts to solve a problem rarely work; and often they actually make that problem worse.
An example?
LBJ’s Great Society and his War on Poverty. Who could question the good intent of curing poverty and illiteracy and hunger?
But, after decades of massive federal and state spending - in the trillions of dollars cumulatively - there are actually more people living under the poverty level now than when these programs began in the 1960's.
Plus, there are tremendous - and unanticipated - social consequences to those well-intentioned government programs: the taxes needed to pay for them crushed the middle class in the 1970's and caused a ‘reverse racial antipathy’ that has set back the state of race relations to this day.
So a series of federal programs designed to heal racial divisions and elevate the poor did neither.
Hurricane Katrina is another perfect example: while government on all three levels - federal, state and local - have proven to be in the first stages of this disaster somehow totally surprised and inept, private companies and churches were already ready to act the first day - until the ‘government’ turned them away.
‘Conservatism’ has really never changed; only those who try to co-opt its now-popular political label have changed.
Barry Goldwater was the father of modern-day conservatism; and he handed off that mantle to Ronald Reagan after the 1964 campaign.
Reagan Conservatism is a modified ‘Libertarian Conservatism’ which basically distrusts government’s ability to do much - even when well-intentioned.
The Bushes - father and son - were never Reagan Conservatives. Back in 1978 when GW Bush ran for the US House of Representatives in Texas, he ran as a twin of his father: a Rockefeller (liberal) Republican. He lost that race.
Two years later his father ran for President in the GOP primaries against Ronald Reagan. Bush derided Reagan’s economic plan as ‘voodoo economics.’ Again, a Bush ran as a ‘moderate’ or a ‘liberal’ Republican. And again, a Bush lost that race.
In 1992, after four years as President, George HW Bush had to face a conservative - Pat Buchanan - in the GOP primaries. Buchanan so wouded Bush that he was dead meat for Perot and Clinton in November. The fault lines of the modern GOP were clear: true conservatism was ‘in’ and ‘Rockefellerism’ was gone, goodbye.
So GW Bush cosmetically morphed himself into a Reaganite: a horseless ranch, cowboy clothes and ‘down home’ lingo - all from a kid who went to Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School!
But in his essence, GW Bush is a Big Government Republican. His type loves federal power for power’s sake. They love the trappings of the power - but don’t know how to use it effectively.
Katrina is but the latest example.
Why the Feds behaved the way they did last week - slow to get going while people were dying - is exactly why ‘government’ - Republican or Democrat - cannot be trusted.
Hurricane Katrina is yet the latest example of ‘government’ - at all levels - failing the people ‘it’ is supposed to serve.
This is not a matter of Republican or Democrat; it is a matter of the expected arrogance, aloofness, diffidence, innate corruption, coldness - and sheer incompetence - that always permeates all levels of government.
Katrina is just the latest example.
Pick your poison: from bungled investigations to billion-dollar rip-offs, ‘government’ in our country is more often than not more a problem than a problem-solver.
Liberals - and this is why they have lost power nationally - still cling to the notion of using the government to ‘do good.’ But, even when well-intentioned, government efforts to solve a problem rarely work; and often they actually make that problem worse.
An example?
LBJ’s Great Society and his War on Poverty. Who could question the good intent of curing poverty and illiteracy and hunger?
But, after decades of massive federal and state spending - in the trillions of dollars cumulatively - there are actually more people living under the poverty level now than when these programs began in the 1960's.
Plus, there are tremendous - and unanticipated - social consequences to those well-intentioned government programs: the taxes needed to pay for them crushed the middle class in the 1970's and caused a ‘reverse racial antipathy’ that has set back the state of race relations to this day.
So a series of federal programs designed to heal racial divisions and elevate the poor did neither.
Hurricane Katrina is another perfect example: while government on all three levels - federal, state and local - have proven to be in the first stages of this disaster somehow totally surprised and inept, private companies and churches were already ready to act the first day - until the ‘government’ turned them away.
‘Conservatism’ has really never changed; only those who try to co-opt its now-popular political label have changed.
Barry Goldwater was the father of modern-day conservatism; and he handed off that mantle to Ronald Reagan after the 1964 campaign.
Reagan Conservatism is a modified ‘Libertarian Conservatism’ which basically distrusts government’s ability to do much - even when well-intentioned.
The Bushes - father and son - were never Reagan Conservatives. Back in 1978 when GW Bush ran for the US House of Representatives in Texas, he ran as a twin of his father: a Rockefeller (liberal) Republican. He lost that race.
Two years later his father ran for President in the GOP primaries against Ronald Reagan. Bush derided Reagan’s economic plan as ‘voodoo economics.’ Again, a Bush ran as a ‘moderate’ or a ‘liberal’ Republican. And again, a Bush lost that race.
In 1992, after four years as President, George HW Bush had to face a conservative - Pat Buchanan - in the GOP primaries. Buchanan so wouded Bush that he was dead meat for Perot and Clinton in November. The fault lines of the modern GOP were clear: true conservatism was ‘in’ and ‘Rockefellerism’ was gone, goodbye.
So GW Bush cosmetically morphed himself into a Reaganite: a horseless ranch, cowboy clothes and ‘down home’ lingo - all from a kid who went to Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School!
But in his essence, GW Bush is a Big Government Republican. His type loves federal power for power’s sake. They love the trappings of the power - but don’t know how to use it effectively.
Katrina is but the latest example.
Why the Feds behaved the way they did last week - slow to get going while people were dying - is exactly why ‘government’ - Republican or Democrat - cannot be trusted.