Morally Incomprehensible!

Republicans to NOLA: Let them die to teach them obedience.
by TrueBlueMajority
Tue Sep 6th, 2005 at 10:24:58 PDT
The Bush Administration and the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA have made a series of strange decisions in the week since Hurricane Katrina hit, decisions that are incomprehensible to those of us who value the lives of the people in New Orleans and the other Gulf Coast communities.

Most of us here, people with functioning brains and hearts, are mystified about how they bungled this so badly, because we keep assuming they were on the same page with us about the most important goal of disaster response and relief. You and I and like-minded people all thought saving as many lives as possible before and after the storm was top priority. But suppose the people in charge of this Administration are so profoundly emotionally disordered that saving as many lives as possible is not their top priority?

TrueBlueMajority's diary :: ::
With great effort, I wrenched myself out of a lifetime of compassionate reality-based reasoning, and started considering possible alternative priorities. Suddenly the answer came to me and I was stunned at how it explained everything. It not only explains their response to Hurricane Katrina, but every decision and non-decision made by these people in the last five years wove themselves into one seamless garment. I even felt like a fool for not having figured it out sooner, given everything we know about Lakoff and the Republican neocon mindset.

Their top priority is obtaining and maintaining power and authority.

Doesn't it all make sense now?

Read that again and take in the full magnitude of it. Their top priority is obtaining and maintaining power and authority. If people have to lie, fine. If people have to die, fine. Maybe this has been obvious to other people for a long time but it is only Hurricane Katrina that has made it crystal clear for me. It explains every otherwise inexplicable decision this Administration has made from day one.

Their top priority is obtaining and maintaining power and authority, and apparently the only criterion determining whether you get a job or a promotion in this Administration is whether you are willing to accept this as the primary underlying goal of all your work, regardless of what your actual job description might be according to the rest of the world. The people who receive the highest praise in this Administration are the ones who demonstrate the most consistent loyalty to this overarching goal; and the more opposition you absorb in service to that goal, the more lavishly you are rewarded. Conversely, anyone who takes any action, makes any statement, or in any way implies that other moral, scientific or spiritual factors should be taken into consideration when making policy decisions, is slapped down as severely as possible by an army of conformity enforcers.

In this world, press secretaries do not actually provide information or answer questions. Attorneys General do not investigate willful and persistent violations of law. National Security Advisors ignore warnings about imminent terrorist threats. Secretaries of Defense are unprepared to use military resources wisely. Secretaries of State do not engage in diplomacy. U.N. Ambassadors do not promote the goals or even advocate the continued existence of the U.N. Vice Presidents are not chosen for their ability to advance to the stress and responsibility of the presidency. Homeland Security directors do not plan for the most likely disruptions to national security.

And the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not prepare for a disaster that for years had been called one of the three most catastrophic and deadly disasters that could strike this country, one that didn't even occur suddenly or without warning, but helpfully announced itself several days in advance.

Look at the list of outrageous decisions in David NYCs diary. We called these decisions incompetent, we called them insensitive, we called them racist, and all those assessments are true. But every single one of them can easily be explained by a desire to maintain absolute control over a situation, or to save face by appearing to be in control of a situation even when they are not.

This is what happens when people who don't believe in government are put in charge of government. This is what happens when people pursue government jobs to gain power rather than offer public service. This is what happens when you vote for Republicans.

Now they are doing forced evacuations? Now they are going door to door? Not back when it could have rescued survivors, but now after a week of additional deaths? Maybe they want no witnesses for the thousands of drowned bodies they are going to find in attics and the dehydrated bodies they are going to find in bathrooms. Again, control, control, control. Sacrifice everything in the name of appearing to be in control, even (or most especially) when facts show you are not in control. An entire Administration of hypermasculine fools driving in circles and hopelessly lost but unwilling to accept help or ask for directions, in order not to look weak in front of the redstate voters in the passenger seats who were gullible enough to put their trust in them.

Combine this with the dittohead spin and how can we escape the conclusion that this is all about enforced obedience? "If we provide too much aid, people won't evacuate." "We told them to get out and the ones that didn't get out deserve whatever happens to them." "Local officials didn't request the aid the way they were supposed to." Statements like these boil down to the following horrifying philosophy about the people who lost their lives in New Orleans:

Let them die, to teach them who's running things: their Democratic Mayor and Governor and Senator can do nothing without us.

Let them die to remind them that our "you're on your own" philosophy of government "won" the last two elections.

Let them die so next time the survivors won't expect the government to swoop in and save them.

Let them die, to teach the others what happens to people who don't do things our way.

Let them die, to teach them obedience.


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