|
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of
a job."
Two weeks after one of the greatest disasters in American
history, the man who blew it, who lied about his qualifications,
still sits in his job. Yes, he is no longer in charge of the
Hurricane relief efforts, but Congress just appropriated $50
billion to the agency he leads to run the reconstruction of New
Orleans and a new hurricane looms off the Carolina coast. FEMA
is a failed agency, a dumping ground of political hacks, unable
to do what it is supposed to do today - and now it is being
given responsibility for a reconstruction project it has no
capacity to manage. And our good friend Mike Brown is still in
charge.
The story of Mike Brown reveals a great deal
about the state of modern conservatism in America today. For all
their billions spent, and unchecked power here in Washington,
the conservatives have still not proven they can govern the
country. We know they are awfully good at politics, campaigns,
spinning, positioning, framing, attacking their opponents,
playing the "blame game." They are just aren't very good at this
governing thing.
"Cleaning up the mess" of
thousands of Brownies is now the primary task before the nation
and its leaders. Let's look at some of the main
challenges facing our intrepid country:
Restoring
government's capacity to give Americans the tools they need for
the new century - a purposeful strategy to drive down
government revenue and increase spending has left our government
in a crippled and dangerous fiscal position. Our unprecedented
deficits and borrowing from abroad were unsustainable prior to
Katrina, but we’ve now added at least $250 billion to an
already broken budget. With increased defense spending and
Iraq and Katrina taking trillions in the next few years,
bringing our spending and income in line will be hard
enough. But we still have very little money, if any,
to invest in other urgent social priorities like helping America
move to energy independence, combating global climate change,
fixing our unsatisfactory health care system, a national effort
to give our kids and workers better skills to succeed in the
hyper-competitive global economy or helping America play catch
up in providing broadband and wireless internet access to
ourpeople.
The dangerous erosion of the economic position
of the middle class is only one reflection of the
administration's failure to respond to the rapidly evolving
global economy. While corporate profits have returned, and the
wealthy have benefited from historic tax breaks, the middle
class has seen its income retreat to 1997 levels while the cost
of many essentials - borrowing, health care, energy,
transportation - have risen
dramatically.
Cleaning up Iraq, winning the war
on terror and improving our standing in the world -
Bush's foreign policy has been a remarkable failure. Bin Laden
lives and terrorist attacks are increasing. Iraq is more likely
to become our version of the Soviet Union's experience in
Afghanistan than a democratic beachhead in the Middle East. We
seem to have no strategy for dealing with Iran, North Korea and
the rise of China. We have become dangerously dependent on
foreign central banks to fund the basic operations of the
government while weakening the capacity of the world to take
collective action on common problems, whether economic,
environmental or for our collective security. We have sent very
mixed signals on our commitment to liberalized trade, alienated
traditional and important allies and damaged our image as a
benevolent force in the world, one of the most important assets
Bush inherited that has been depleted during his
time.
And, needless to say, by turning the agency in
charge of our preparedness and response to emergencies like 9/11
- the central mission of the conservatives these past few years
- over to a bunch of unqualified political hacks they
demonstrated to the world - including our adversaries - that we
are not ready.
That brings us back to Brownie. Brownie.
Only in Bush's world where spin and politics trumps good
and sound government is Brownie doing a heck of a job.
Our government is failing in its most essential responsibilities
- creating broad-based prosperity, managing our finances,
keeping us safe, meeting new challenges as they arise. The
coming debate over who rebuilds New Orleans and how it
is rebuilt must become a surrogate for who runs the country and
how it is run, when the gang in there today has created a New
Orleans-like mess throughout our government.
The mess
Bush, the Brownies and the conservatives have left us is a big
one. For all their billions spent conservatism is still
more of a critique than a governing philosophy - still more a
political than a governing success, more Tammany Hall than New
Deal. What has failed these past few years is not just
Bush, but the modern conservative approach itself. Faced with
the responsibility of governing, something progressives excelled
at for much of the 20th century, the conservatives have shown
how intellectually immature and ill-prepared for primetime they
are. They have may have had many ideas these modern
conservatives, but they have been bad and ineffective ones, and
we will all be paying the price for a long, long time.
In
that sense Brownie is more a manifestation of their approach to
government than an aberration, which is why they have been so
slow to fire him. He is long on politics, short on effectiveness
and slow to use government to meet the challenges right in front
of us.
It did not have to be so, but it is. We've
been told we were getting strong leaders with great vision and
what we've gotten is a bunch of Brownies. It is time
for sensible and responsible people from both parties to start
working together to chart a new course and clean up the mess
21st century conservatism has left behind.
Best regards,
Simon Rosenberg, NDN President
|
