The Shaming Of The True

Rmj at Adventus:

The issues of Katrina, like the issues raised by Cindy Sheehan, are clearly completely off Karl Rove's moral radar screen. He has no response to them because he seemingly has no conception of them. Throwing money at cronies and their companies won't make us all forget the last two weeks. Blaming the victims, be they poor or local government officials, won't make us forget, either. This morning people in Mississippi reminded us, on NPR, that they went 5 days without federal help, too.

This is only going to get worse, before it starts to get better. Shame is a very powerful motivator, even more powerful than greed or selfishness. Apparently Karl Rove doesn't understand that.

The truth will out. 

Even without Cindy Sheehan, Americans were turning against the war because it was finally impacting many families here at home in many ways.  Folks might have been "uncomfortable" with the Iraq quagmire leading up to the election, but since then almost 1000 more Americans have been killed, each corner we've turned has led us to another street without joy, and as things worsen domestically voters naturally wonder whether foreign adventures are worth it it threatens our homeland security instead of strengthening it.

And now they witness a shameful Federal response to Katrina.  Yeah, Nagin and Blanco and Barbour et al might've done their jobs better--though it appears they were actively engaged and following appropriate procedures and protocol--and I'm sure if we find they fucked up their constituents will have something to say about that when elections roll around.  But the nation saw that the one government we all share, owned by Bush and his party, failed to do the very thing they promised us they were capable of during the 2004 campaign.

With the diaspora that has resulted from a tremendous regional disaster, this is not so remote as Iraq.  Katrina instantly impacted hundreds of thousands of people in a way that the war has not.  Whether the death toll in NOLA is "only" 91, or the same as we lost on 9/11, or 3 times as many were killed in that other national trauma, tens of thousands of familes are displaced and ranging far and wide with their horrific stories.

I told the EschaCon audience during our panel discussion last week about how places in the Boundary Waters of northern MN were getting ready to provide housing for refugees.  My folks were in Quebec for their anniversary and even those damned Frogs were pissed about their own government's slow response. 

So the Bush administration and its apologists can spin all they want.  It won't work this time because this is a local story that knows no geographic or political boundaries, and hits close to home no matter where you live in this country.

I'm reminded of the "Dreams" episode of M*A*S*H.  At one point Major Winchester is dreaming that he is a great magician, wowing the OR audience with astonishing feats.  A patient is wheeled in, and Charles continues his magic show as the soldier gasps and shudders.  The tricks aren't working, and the surgeon frantically tries more and more with his horrified audience and the dying soldier looking on.  In the end Winchester's sleight-of-hand, as impressive as it is, fails to save his patient.

Rove has been a wizard of message control and political stagecraft.  While many of us saw through his illusions before the election, they really were impressive in their own context.  But this time the patient needs real attention and not just fancy hand waving from Karl the Magician and his lovely assistant, Dubya.  Americans, including the media, are beginning to understand that it's all just tricks.

They see what's really true, and the shame of it all.

ntodd