"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
-- Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA), quoted by the Wall Street Journal, "overheard" in a conversation with lobbyists.
At least you can envision that Barbara Bush doesn't get it, and feels indifferent toward the victims - but Baker is clearly and openly HOSTILE to them.
Mark Morford hits the nail on the head:
The truest measure of any president, of any leader, is how well he takes care of his own people. And Bush, well, Bush has done a simply spectacular job of taking care of exactly his own people -- the wealthy, the corporate, the extreme religious right, his core base of supporters -- while happily and fiercely ignoring, restricting, condemning, destroying the rest. Are you educated or progressive or liberal or alternative-minded or sexually open or homosexual or anti-war? This means you. Are you dirt poor and belong to a minority and don't drive an SUV and contribute six figures per annum to the RNC and maybe live in a flooded swamp in the Louisiana bayou? This means you, squared. Sucker.
Meanwhile, rapper Kanye West, who called a, uh, spade a spade when he said words to the effect of "Bush hates black people," suffers no backlash and jumps from 19 to 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. Of course, his rhetoric plays TO his audience (take note, Dixie Chicks).
No comments:
Post a Comment