Its remarkable when the liberal infestation in our government makes itself so clear that no one can deny it. Sure the infestation is so pronounced on the Democratic side of the isle that it is hard to ignore but we also have to stand up and take note when the Republicans (often mislabeled "conservatives") also show how liberal they really are too for the most part. They might not be as far down the dark path to socialism and unconstitutional government as the Democratic Party, but they are not that far behind.
This past week former FEMA chief Michael D. Brown was in the hot seat on Capital Hill taking it from all sides over Katrina. You have so-called Senators like Norm Coleman (R) Minnesota saying of Mr. Brown
"You're not prepared to put a mirror in front of your face and recognize your own inadequacies"and
"Perhaps you may get a more sympathetic hearing if you had a willingness to confess your own sins in this."Excuse me Mr. Coleman - I'd call you "Senator" but I seriously wonder if you are worthy of that title with this political kowtowing. Mr. Brown and the entire administration have claimed they could have done things differently and perhaps better. But the one issue that was never really spoken was was it their role in the first place? I'm still waiting, to this day, despite asking many times, to have someone, anyone point out to me where in Article I of the United States Constitution the federal government is supposed to even have an agency like FEMA!
I can however find CLEARLY in the Constitution a section that says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It's Amendment X in case you can't find it yourself.
So, the Federal Government is not supposed to be a source of "disaster relief" because it isn't a "power" delegated to it. That means that it is the state and local governments, along with the people that are to handle this.
Mr. Brown gave it good to the so-called representatives. In response to Mr. Coleman he stood up and said
"That's very easy for you to say sitting behind that dais and not being there in the middle of that disaster watching that human suffering and watching those people dying and trying to deal with those structural dysfunctionalities, even within the federal government."It's true. And it is symptomatic of most of the problems with Washington and the federal government. They sit in Washington and tell people what is and is not good for them and then they scold anyone that they think hasn't done what they think is good for them.
Brown also came under fire for lack of buses to get the people trapped in New Orleans at the Super Dome out. What? Why did they need buses? The city had a whole parking lot full of them! The pictures don't lie.
What is troubling in all this is the focus being put on the federal government as the nanny state and not years by local and state officials who ignored the problems they were well aware of. Those problems were that if a big enough hurricane hit New Orleans the city would be flooded and people would get hurt. Those problems were that these same local officials knew well in advance that there was a massive storm coming. Those problems were that these officials sat on their hands and let busses sit idle while their constituents were in danger. Those problems were that everyone kept waiting for the federal government to do something - any thing. Those problems are that to this day people still do not recognize the proper role of the federal, state and local governments and are still looking to the federal government to "do something", create a bigger government bureaucracy and give so-called Senators something to rant about.
All while Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Blanco sit around with flooded busses that they themselves failed to use and will probably be re-elected when the time comes. We must recognize the problem, which is that there are a great many people in this great nation that don't want to accept their own roles in this Republic. And until we do this nation will continue to slide ever to the left politically as more and more people look to the federal government to "save them" from their own failure to act with a large and lumbering bureaucracy that cannot possibly do so.
J.J. Jackson is the owner and Lead Editor of American Conservative Politics - The Land of the Free (http://www.thelandofthefree.net) and American Conservative Daily (http://www.americanconservativedaily.com). He is also the owner of American Infidel T-shirts (http://www.cafepress.com/americaneagle04).