[RC] Responsibility - Pundita on fixing the two-party system

[Avesland@aol.com]

Ernie :
There were the  equivalent of libertarians in the early  1800s,
Fortunately just a few, but those people thought  that  the  gvt
ha no right to buy Louisiana from France in the first  place.
 
To me, with no intention to start a political imbroglio, which I  would
prefer to avoid just now,  -too damned busy-  still I  must say that
essentially the disaster of New Orleans knocked out the few  remaining
props from what remained of my (admittedly anemic)  libertarian
sympathies.
 
Can you imagine a libertarian Netherlands ?
 
I can imagine a libertarian country however, Bolivia. Or  Somalia.
 
The great stress the libertarians place on free speech is the one  remaining
virtue of theirs that has weathered this storm. But that is about  it. IMHO
the libertarian "project" is now officially RIP.
 
Let us hope that a  few libertarian cautions are not  forgotten. There is
such a thing as too much gvt. That case is well taken. But the  objective
of gutting the gvt can now be seen in all its manifest  stupidity.
 
If the tragedy of New Orleans does not effectively kill  libertarianism,
I would wonder why,  and wonder and wonder.  For that  would say that
even the most obvious lessons of experience are insufficient   to
wake us up so that we can learn from our mistakes. That would  be
bad news indeed.
 
One good thing about the disaster, although it us a helluva way to 
be taught a  lesson, is that we can now see just how  inadequate our
security system actually is. Here in Oregon the potential future  crisis
is not a hypothetical hurricane, since we don't have them, but the 
possibility of a Pacific Ocean tsunami, which we do get every  couple
of decades or so. The state gvt has woken up.  Amazing. Are  we
really prepared for the next tsunami ? Are we ? Everyone  wants
good answers.  To say the least, it is about  time.
 
My guess (actually this is based on snippets of information) is  that
this kind of Katrina post mortem needed alarmism is going on  all
over the country. Good. Finally, some kind of rationality about  the
potential of serious natural disasters  -or the near  equivalent, a 
potential terrorist attack with a dirty bomb or  the like.
 
I have no idea, though, why Michael Brown has not already been  made
to walk the plank. If there is such a thing as a prize for the  worst
possible job for the most unqualified man in an important gvt  office,
he would deserve it. We can give runner up prizes to the  governors
of Louisiana and Mississippi. We have been talking about New  Orleans
but the situation in Gulfport and Biloxi has been about as   bad.
 
One final note. The props have also been knocked out from under  various
Atheist arguments about religion, and arguments from the  Politically
Correct Left. How many thousands of churches have  responded ? The
response of Christians has been as heart warming as imaginable.  Maybe
I still have disagreement with aspects of Christian theology , but  not with
the morality of Christians in dealing with this emergency. What a  magnificent
model of social responsibility.
 
Billy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 9/9/2005 12:26:38 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
drernie at radicalcentrism.org writes:

 
Hi again,


On Sep 9, 2005, at 10:54 AM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar wrote:

 
And on and on it goes.  You can quibble with the number, but the  point is 
that we don't diminish *our* responsibility simply by assigning  legitimate 
responsibility to others. 
 






My favorite policy analyst Pundita had a very radical centrist article on  
the Katrina debacle which echoed some of the same themes Jordan and Billy have  
stressed.



_http://pundita.blogspot.com/2005/09/better-go-directly-to-plan-b.html_ 
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2005/09/better-go-directly-to-plan-b.html) 
 
Over-idealization of democratic principles:  obsessive focus on the Right and 
Left to ramrod ideals about freedom into  legislation at the expense of 
basic, critical national  needs.





I'm curious -- do the Libertarians among us think that the government has  
the right (or duty) to pull refugees from their homes? And if so, do what with  
them?  Dump then in the nearest dry field and abandon them to pursue  their 
own freedom? Find a reputable charity to house them?  Provide them  with enough 
security to get back on their feet?


Or fix the system that caused this tragedy in the first place?


-- Ernie P.


Excerpts:


At root the nightmare that arose in New Orleans is  about the abandonment of 
long-term comprehensive planning in the United  States. The tragedy played out 
in New Orleans removed arguments for long-term  planning from the 
abstractions of economic and political theories and put them  in concrete, simple terms. 
So now, everybody  understands...


It is also plain that disaster assistance is not  enough to mend many of the 
lives shattered in New Orleans. Many evacuees were  on public assistance or 
working in dead-end jobs at the lowest end of the pay  scale for the gambling 
and tourism industries. The lives must be built anew.  For the American work 
force cannot hope to remain competitive in the  globalized markets if entire 
regions of our country are on the dole or working  as croupiers and waiters.


Many causes led this country to drift from long-range  thinking; among them:
    *   The two-party system of politics, which became a  literal industry 
serving its own needs at the expense of the national  welfare. 
    *   Pork barrel politics: localities elected officials  not for their 
foresight and governance skills but for what they could do,  short-term, for a 
business faction or voting bloc.
    *   Over-idealization of democratic principles:  obsessive focus on the 
Right and Left to ramrod ideals about freedom into  legislation at the expense 
of basic, critical national  needs.
    *   Abuse of the concept of federalism, which  transformed many US state 
governments into a virtual  duchy
...  
Face this: the aftermath of a hurricane is sweeping  away an era in American 
politics. If the Congress does not confront the  failure of long-term planning 
they will lose the American public. Then the  Democrat and Republican parties 
will find themselves facing a third party  candidate by 2008.


The candidate will not be Ralph Nader or a Green Party  type -- one easily 
blocked by Democrat and GOP machines at the state level. It  will be a candidate 
representing the tidal wave of public outrage. The  American workforce is 
among the hardest working, if not the hardest working,  in the world. And hands 
down, we are the busiest people in the world. We don't  have time for verbal 
sleights of hand from elected  officials.


The American people as a whole have facing-up to do as  well. The outpouring 
of donations and volunteer help from millions of  Americans in the wake of 
Katrina is filling the yawning gap created by  incompetence at the federal, state 
and city levels. Yet quite simply this  heartwarming show of kindness amounts 
to treble taxation. 




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