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The Unanswered: How’s New Orleans Doing? |
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Among the many glaring flaws in Bush’s State of the Union last night, we have his failure to mention the city of New Orleans and its ongoing struggle to rebuild. Unfortunately, the omission is nothing new.
In 2007, the city was similarly stonewalled. Other matters proved more central to Bush’s notion of the Union; Iraq dominated both speeches, Iran warranted four references in ‘07, seven in ‘08, Lebanon even found its way into each address. But not once did we get an update on the Big Easy.
In ‘06 — just one season removed from the disaster — New Orleans garnered about ten seconds of the speech, receiving the hollow lip service below:
“a hopeful society comes to the aid of fellow citizens — and stays at it until they’re back on their feet … in New Orleans and many other places, many of our citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country … as we recover from a disaster, let us also work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity.”
It’s not surprising that Bush’s speech writers chose to omit New Orleans two years running, and touched on it only briefly in Katrina’s wake. The disaster represents the one failure that Bush’s political base cannot in any way, shape, or form spin into a victory.
What is surprising, however, is that Democratic leaders have not used this fact to highlight Bush’s lack of regard for the citizens of his own nation.
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, chosen to give this year’s Democratic response, similarly omitted New Orleans from her speech. As she spoke of the rebuilding efforts in her tornado-torn Kansas, she gave herself a perfect opportunity to address New Orleans. She passed.
In 2007, Senator James Webb of Virginia gave the Democratic response and he made only casual reference to New Orleans;
“Let’s simply say we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.”
In his uninspired response, Webb did not point out Bush’s exclusion of New Orleans, his lack of concern for its citizens, or his lack of leadership on the issue. He let him get away with it.
This inexcusable behavior begs the question — why is the Democratic Party not capitalizing on the opportunities presented by Bush’s incompetence? Have they too forgotten about New Orleans? Are they shamefacedly ignoring the problem because their new congressional weight hasn’t translated into real, government-led progress down south?
No matter the answer, our government’s reaction to Katrina, in both the short and the long term, is an indictment of our nation’s priorities. In a time of need, the citizens of New Orleans have again been hung out to dry.
No doubt they’re indignant. We all should be.
***Update — props to John Edwards for announcing his plan to run, and announcing his withdrawal, in the Crescent City.
Agreed. The omissions say more than the topics Bush chose to talk about. Nothing hard, no admission of failures. Ignore it and the problem might go away.
If Bush didn’t mention Orleans, how can he be TRYING to “shape, or form spin into a victory” as the reddit title implies?
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