Conservatives Helped This Happen

Posters Note: The devastation we are witnessing in the our own Gulf region is unbelievable and heart wrenching. The people of New Orleans and the entire area need our help and support to overcome this terrible event.

But the politicians and policies that helped to exacerbate the impact of the hurricane need to be exposed and held accountable. Again, the Administration's focus on pre-emptive wars, militarism and isolationist environmental interests have paid a ghastly dividend.

C. Herrera




A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Dan Pashman, Senior Producer, Morning Sedition, Air America Radio

"As terrible as it is, this attack could be miniscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. The ACLU's got to take a lot of the blame for this…The abortionists have got to bear some of the burden for this because God will not be mocked…I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians…all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'you helped this happen.'"
- Rev. Jerry Falwell, September 13, 2001

Who can forget Jerry Falwell's infamous post-9/11 indictment of America? 'You helped this happen,' Falwell said to the majority of Americans, who disagree with him on a majority of issues.

Now, a conservative group called Columbia Christians for Life has proclaimed that Hurricane Katrina was another one of God's punishments, citing as evidence the supposed resemblance between the hurricane's image on a weather map, and a fetus.

Trying to refute such claims from these zealots is truly an exercise in futility. But searching for explanations after a disaster of Katrina's magnitude is not. And if you do in fact search for those explanations, you'll reach an unavoidable conclusion:

Hurricane Katrina may have been an act of God. But the level of death and destruction it caused was not. That was an act of conservatism.

It is conservative policies that made this natural disaster unnaturally catastrophic. I say to conservatives, you have blood on your hands today. I point the finger in your face and say, "You helped this happen."

Conservative policies have led to an increase in poverty across the nation, especially in New Orleans, one of the poorest major cities in America. About 150,000 people in New Orleans lived below the poverty line before Katrina, 100,000 of them in abject poverty, making less than $8,000 a year. Their poverty left them with nowhere to go, and no means of escape, as the hurricane bore down on their homes.

Conservative policies have led to more global warming, which scientists agree has already begun producing more intense hurricanes and storms. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a former Republican Party Chairman and longtime GOP operative, has seen his own state ravaged by Katrina. But he was vital in helping to convince the Bush administration to squash the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and pushed Bush to go back on his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide. Governor Barbour would dare express grief over the deaths that he himself enabled.

Conservative policies have led to a war in Iraq based on lies, and tax cuts for the rich, both of which, we know for a fact, took money directly away from vital hurricane preparedness work in New Orleans. On nine occasions in 2004 and 2005, The New Orleans Times-Picayune specifically cited the cost of the Iraq War as a reason for the shortfall in hurricane- and flood-control funds. The levees that gave way under Katrina's pressure were supposed to be upgraded with money that ended up in Halliburton’s coffers.

Conservative policies have also led to the National Guard's misuse and abuse, leaving the Gulf Coast without the personnel and equipment vital to a recovery effort of this magnitude. More people will die on the Gulf Coast as they await their would-be saviors, who are in Iraq, victims themselves of conservative policies.

There can be no doubt that while Hurricane Katrina was not preventable, much of the death and destruction left in its wake was. I say to conservatives, you have blood on your hands today. I point the finger in your face and say, "You helped this happen."

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION