lunes, mayo 22, 2006

Punching themselves in the face

It seems to me that America's new favorite pastime, which is quickly replacing baseball, is a very self-deprecating game called "Punch yourself in the face."

To be fair, as I said in my post "You'll Die Before They Come", Mayor Ray Nagin and the governer of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, cannot take all the blame for Katrina's fucked up aftermath. I maintain that the guy who aspires to be the leader of the free world (and I say "aspire" because he's nowhere near to making it there) has to take the bulk of the responsibility for a) being on perpetual auto-pilot while asleep at the wheel, b) completely inneffective coordination of efforts, and c) denying any responsibility at all like a child. But Nagin and Blanco were also at fault for not taking the initiative to help their own and instead waiting for Bush to get off vacay. 9/11 should have told them that waiting for Bush was going to end in disaster.

This past weekend, Nagin was re-elected.

This is a pattern similar to that of Washington DC. Former DC mayor, Marion Barry, was caught doing crack with 16 year-old prostitutes in some hotel room in DC in the early nineties, yet got himself re-elected a few years later. This be my thinking: cities with large minority populations keep electing their own, no matter how bad, because these voters think that because the candidates are their "brother", he'll do their communities favors. The predominantly black areas of Washington, DC, some of which have only in recent years become passable, are living proof that that theory is ludicrous. Another case: Bush. The man got us into an unnecessary war, made a fortune out of a tragedy, killed thousands of people without even being near them, is unbelievably stupid and embarrassing and has a family and a cabinet that should be dubbed "the new axis of evil". Yet because he promised the ultra-religious to overturn Roe v. Wade and to outlaw gay marriage, etc., he was re-elected. Everyone knows that neither of these promises were kept, but perhaps the news has yet to reach the cornfields of Kansas. Let's hope it gets there before the next election. For now, Bush lovers can chew on this: According to Bloomberg news, your main man's approval rating is 33%.

Anyway, this is all such unfortunate spin. Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but I tend to judge candidates on the things that they've done. Not reward them for the things they haven't or the things they say they'll do that just never materialize. Don't you all think we should know better by now than to take the word of a politician at face value?

2 comentarios:

Hop Hunahpu dijo...

To be fair to Nagin, he has gone through the worst already. Obviously he made mistakes, but my guess is that most people from New Orleans think that a change in leadership may be counterproductive at this particular point.
As far as Bush goes, I have the feeling that many people voted for him simply because they thought he was dumber or as smart as them (for some reason, being an intelectual in the US does not sit well with voters...)

Amadeo dijo...

I keep thinking if he had my (or anyone else's job) he'd be fired. America Fire the President! Call him into the office and let him go. and do it at 4:00 on a friday.