By Jack Hughes
October 6, 2005—The Bush administration's lack of an effective response to
the disasters along the Gulf Coast should come as no surprise at this late
date. After five years of undivided Republican rule in the United States, only
the most uninformed and credulous can actually still believe that Republican
leaders consider government's prime responsibility to be the welfare of
American citizens.
To those that have been wiped out by the one-two punch of hurricanes
Katrina and Rita: sorry folks, your misery and despair isn't even worthy of
consideration by our august Republican leaders—except when they are
forced to utter empty words of consolation and deceptive promises of
imminent aid when the television cameras are rolling.
Of course, they're lying. They know they're lying. They don't care about the
suffering of the thousands of newly displaced, homeless and unemployed
Americans. There's a psychological term for those who can lie without
hesitation and have no empathy for the pain and suffering of others:
sociopathy (or anti-social personality disorder). The Republican Party—and
through them our country—has been hijacked by sociopaths.
If there's any doubt about that fact, just look at the GOP's first political
responses to the catastrophe: voiding the long-established Davis- Bacon
"prevailing-wage" law, which would have guaranteed that workers in the
stricken areas would be paid at least $9 per hour on Halliburton's sweetheart
no-bid reconstruction contracts; and the gutting of environmental regulations
allowing more pollution from refineries. These were the Bush administration's
first priorities. Permanent shelter, medical care, jobs and education—the stuff
that will actually help people? Those will have to wait for commissions and
task-force recommendations until sometime after the mid-term elections (i.e.,
never).
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/100605Hughes/100605hughes.htmldp
(Onlinejournal is taking a short break and will resume publishing on or about October 17)
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