Make government the solution

Predictably, the blowback against a week of government blunders in assisting New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast hit by Katrina has started. Abstract notions about small government become more concrete (and hideous) when we see how slowly and sloppily government came to the aid of our Southern brothers and sisters.
The response of the right’s slime machine has already started. The administration is blaming local and state government officials. (It’s a fair criticism up to a point, but neglects that the feds are supposed to take control when such an overwhelming act of nature comes ashore. Why they didn’t will be discussed for years to come.)
The administration’s allies in talk radio and in the blogosphere are piling on. Today, I received an e-mail blaming the slow/non-response following the hurricane on “the welfare state.”
The e-mailer has a point, but only by accident. Our e-mailer, using thinly-veiled racist language, is thinking of the poor and mostly black folks in New Orleans who had no way to escape the storm. Well, that’s just callous and flat wrong.
However, the welfare state that rewards the richest 1 percent with generous tax cuts while letting the nation’s infrastructure crumble is another matter. That welfare state is on the way out as the bill for rebuilding the property and lives of those damaged by Katrina comes due. Said differently, the Senate is supposed to take up repeal of the estate tax this week. How many of those who died along the Gulf Coast will leave a fortune worthy of taxing? How much more valuable would that money be if it were spent making emergency responders more robust? How much more valuable will it be for those starting over again?
Politicians like George W. Bush and pundits like David Brooks love to pump up the South’s (and other red state's) general dislike and distrust of government. The South is used as cover for dismantling government and lining the pockets of big-money benefactors at the same time. This may soon come to an end around these parts. We’ve witnessed how small government, starved of funds and competent planning, fails to serve the Americans in trouble.