California Conservative

As hurricane Katrina left behind a beaten New Orleans, Louisiana, underwater and her citizens desolate, the rumors and accounts of atrocities began. There were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, dead. Theory had it that New Orleans could never recover. It would be impossible to rebuild the city because of the watery devastation and financial liability. There were rapes, murders, even cannibalism in the New Orleans Superdome. Mayor Ray Nagin spoke to Oprah in a public interview of people “in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.” He continued that the crowd in the Superdome had descended into an “almost animalistic state.”

With these facts duly noted, time came to assess blame. At the top of the food chain, President Bush received scathing reviews from the usual suspects. Senate Democrats promptly began demanding a 9/11 Commission type investigation into the federal response to the natural disaster. Democrats accused Pres. Bush of underfunding the Army Corps of Engineers, sending all our troops to Iraq so none were available for Katrina rescue operations, exhausting the National Guard and Reserves forces in Iraq and, of course, of hating minorities, his real reason for the “slow response”. (”Word in the street” has it that Bush sent Rita to Texas to finish off those fleeing from New Orleans that Katrina missed).

Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel and Rev. Al Sharpton (among many others) are race-baiting to promote the false impression, using such language as: “Clearly Bush has become that, especially after Katrina. We’ve gone from fire hoses to levees.” “Bull Connor didn’t even pretend that he cared about African-Americans. You have to give it to George Bush for being even more diabolical.” “George Bush is our Bull Connor.” “If you’re black in this country, and you’re poor in this country, it’s not an inconvenience - it’s a death sentence.”

One month later, there are 841 dead, not tens of thousands. The stories of rape and murder once reported as fact are now repudiated and unsubstantiated. Schools and restaurants are reopening and some citizens are returning to their homes.

It wasn’t Pres. Bush who was negligent in the rescue efforts in New Orleans, but Mayor Ray Nagin (D) and Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D). Their incompetence and negligence caused the additional and unnecessary suffering of their own constituents.

In fact, just after the rescue effort in Louisiana and Mississippi began, only 13% of Americans blamed President Bush for the response. Most blamed the local government, and rightly so. ABC Nightline aired interviews with some of the victims of Katrina now repositioned in Texas just after Pres. Bush had met with them and given them comfort and aide. To them, hearing the President assuaged their concerns that the United States had let them down. Yet the media tried its best to influence the victims’ opinion against the President. (Watch it: Real Player or Windows Media Player)

Why the discrepancy between fact and fiction? Let’s review.

Who was it that primarily and objectively pronounced these ills without substantiating them? The Democrats and the media. Who was it assessing blame before the storm had barely departed? Democrats and the media. It is liberals who are racists, believing only the worst about the black community, humanity and America. Historically, it is the liberals who have oppressed blacks for centuries and who, when they hear that such atrocities have taken place, don’t even bother to question the ill news. They believe that poor minorities are unable to act outside of liberal dictates because they understand it is their policies which have created and sustained whatever predicament the poor reside in, and it is difficult to overcome outside of moral fortitude. Moral fortitude is not on the liberal menu; it is in the realm of conservative values and religion. Liberalism is a secular movement.

The media is admittedly liberal and an accessory to this crime against the minority poor. Rather than investigate and report, they create news from unsubstantiated second, third and fourth hand reports — or worse…. if it suits their prejudice. They also see poor blacks like those in New Orleans as hopeless deviants who need the Democratic party to give them their daily bread, while in reality it is the Democratic Party that continues to suppress the ability of poor minority populations to succeed outside of the “compassionate liberalism” party.

To simply look at the facts about New Orleans would be damning enough. New Orleans is 67.25% black; 24.53% women with children, no husband; 60.1% of the population is a “family” household, but only 30.82% are married coupled families; and New Orleans has a higher crime rate than the rest of the country in every category but rape. However, the most important fact is that New Orleans is a Democratic stronghold with a Democratic mayor and a Democratic Governor. Similar statistics are consistent with large liberal cities like Los Angeles and New York City.

Compare hurricane response to that of Mississippi, with it’s Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, Texas, with it’s Republican Gov. Rick Perry; Florida with it’s Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

Examine for yourself the difference good conservative leadership can make.

When hearing the reports from the liberal media and Democrats of racism, hatred and incompetence, look no further than them. Former Dem. Senator from NY Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted this very trend among the minorities in his book A Personal History of Social Policy; Miles to Go .

No country, state or city can successfully sustain itself under a government that debilitates the weak and sustains poverty and immorality.

UPDATE: (10/18)
GatewayPundit offers an impressive round-up of the facts

This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 10:29 am and is filed under Author: Amy Proctor, Crime, Culture, Domestic Policies, Op-Ed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.