Katrina Reveals the Raw Brutality of Neo Con Free Market Capitalism

John M. Kelley

Posted Sep 6, 2005      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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Katrina Reveals the Raw Brutality of Neo Con Free Market Capitalism

By John M. Kelley

When Kristina roared ashore on the gulf coast it ripped away any veneer of social conscience or humanity of Neo Con free market capitalism.  Their real philosophy, values and policy consequences were laid bare, not in some distant land, but right here in America, with every news station, led by CNN, reporting it to everyone, worldwide, 24-7.  Their only defense was to revert to character and blame the victim, get the talking points distributed, get the spin working at all levels and moving ahead of time.  But what really happened is that they got caught off guard.  In blaming the victim, their fig leaf of compassionate conservatism blown away by Katrina, the Neo Cons revealed their real agenda and their honest disdain for the rest of us who weren’t born to wealth and power. 

The Curtain Pulled Away: Spin Can Bite You in The Butt

On “Special Report with Brit Hume” on Monday August 29th as Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Fox news pundits Brit Hume, Mort Kondracke, Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes (executive director of the Weekly Standard) suggested that now was the time to stop federal aid as the city faced a catastrophic event.

Hume: And what would the headline be in the Tabloid newspaper?

Kondrack: Washington D.C. to New Orleans: Drop Dead.

Hume: Bush

Barnes: Drop Dead

A few minutes later;

Krauthammer: It seems a bit unseemly to talk about cutting off aid to these people while the hurricane is still roaring through Mississippi. But lets give it a try. (laughter)

On our local hate radio station 1440 Keys Morning Show Sept. 2nd, host Jim Lagos and guests made fun of New Orleans refugees as either “too poor or too stupid to leave.” They continued to generalize all looters as criminals, blamed the victims for “deciding to live in a city below sea level” and said don’t send any refugees here, we won’t be able to get rid of them.  An obviously African American caller who stated they ought to be ashamed of themselves for such obviously racist talk was laughed at, belittled and cut off.  When the next caller suggested the Mexican government was ready to help and had two million experienced waders standing by at the border to cross the river into the U.S., they laughed uproariously and suggested to the producer that he save that clip for future use. 

While conservative commentator Peggy Noonan suggested “looters should be shot”, Michael Brown, Bush’s man in charge of FEMA (Yes that’s the Federal Emergency Management Agency) made the statement “ my heart goes out to every – even if they chose not to evacuate”, as if there were no factors causing the catastrophe other then bad decision making.

Such is the dog eat dog, every man for himself, social Darwinism of the Neo Cons and other right wingers.  Actually they should have been congratulating looters as the essence of free market principles. They should have congratulating the gangs who stole consumer goods, carjacked vehicles, raped women and shot people for the fun of it.  They acted just like, the guys at Enron, World Crossing and other major corporations except of course they were black, poor and didn’t wear suits. Get all you can for the lowest price possible regardless of its effects on others, this is the real philosophy of free market capitalism.  They just like it better when it’s a corporation that does it.

Neither Compassionate Nor Conservative

What the Neo Cons revealed is what it believes is the true purpose of government, to extend and protect the commercial interests of the rich.  The current administration has demonstrated that the only real interest in smaller government is when it comes to taxing the rich, policing corporations, or stopping head start children from exploiting government resources.  When it comes to creating a surveillance state or a military industrial machine, there are no limits. 

To deal with the instability it foresees as it carries out the dismantling of America as we know it, it created a huge internal spy agency misnamed “Homeland Security” to monitor its own citizens.  It is also in the process of bringing the military into domestic affairs like some banana republic.  Playing on fears of “terrorism” it leeches funding from Corps of Engineers flood control projects, national guard troops and response agencies such as FEMA needed to save people in inevitable natural disasters.  Thus they know what library book you took out but not that you are drowning in your house until they see it on the news. Faith based organizations are left to do the government’s job.  Where is Pat Robertson’s National Guard when you need them?

These are the people that believe in transferring the national wealth from programs that protect or serve us all, to the very rich. They do this through privatization schemes, bargain basement sale of public resources, no bid contracts and tax cuts. Government for sale to the highest bidder. New Orleans lays all of that bare.  The administration short changed the city of crucial money to build up their flood protection system, farmed out the disaster plan to a do nothing political contributor and blamed the victims for their fate. 

And what is the Neo Con’s major policy initiative in reaction to their failure to provide for the public welfare?  Push for abolishment of the estate tax so they can leave all of the wealth stolen from the public treasury to their children while, we the working people, get the bill in the form of public debt.  This is Genghis Khan economics.

They will try to spin the truth like they always do when things go wrong as a result of their policies.  If they treat it like Iraq they will lie, deceive, blame and hide the dead. As Alexandra Walker says in an article in the September 2nd issue of “Tom Paine” historically they blame the victims, “the poor chose not to work”, “the homeless are living an ‘alternative lifestyle’ and now those in New Orleans ‘chose not to evacuate’.”  Being a victim of Neo-Con policies is referred to in right wing circles as a “lack of personal responsibility”.

Their avarice really knows no bounds.  They have been willing to elevate the concerns of personal religion to state policies that limit personal choice in our society in order to degrade science to “opinion” so it can’t interfere with destructive policies or citizen claims against their actions.  They have no religious commitment to these values. It’s a cynical policy decision that allows them to denigrate the overwhelming scientific evidence of global warming and its probable impact on increased storm intensity because it is economically inconvenient for their contributors.

But why this lack of concern over the conditions they bring about?  The fact is, they believe the consequences will only be suffered by the poor and working classes.  Does anyone really believe that the overturning of Roe Vs Wade will prevent a rich person from getting themselves or their child an abortion?  Does anyone believe that rich people won’t go overseas for the clinical advances of stem cell research?  Does anyone believe that the rich won’t be able to afford health care, college, retirement?

This is the kind of laissez fare attitude that allows them to ignore the fact that New Orleans had almost 30% of its people living below the poverty rate.  Many have portrayed it as a problem of racism and no doubt economic exploitation is most obvious against people of color.  But do you have any doubt that if that 30% had been white, they still would have been left behind.  The Neo-Cons aren’t racist as long as you have money. 

The color of modern racism is green.  Ethnic, racist and cultural differences have always been exploited to maintain the rich in control regardless of the wealth’s prejudices or lack of them.  The desertion of the poor in New Orleans is just the tip of the ice berg.  The Neo Con’s plan is for the wealthy corporations and individuals to desert all of the poor in the world while making alliances with the wealthy of all colors and nations.  That is why capitalists gladly make deals with Communist Chinese Dictators to use slave labor to undermine American jobs.

Their strategy is, as it has always been to use the masses against each other to keep wages suppressed and as cannon fodder when they and the other power centers of the world cannot agree on how to divide the spoils.  As people lose economic power they are blamed for the results of the policies that hurt them.  “Bad decision making” the Right Wingers declare.

People lose good paying jobs off shore or live in such deprived conditions that they can’t get the skills they need to get a good paying job.  The safety net is shredded beneath them,  They are seduced or forced into debt and legally kept there in a form of indentured servitude.  In the new economy any of the normal crises that happen to us, a health problem, a job loss, an unwanted pregnancy, a divorce destroy any hope of financial stability, let alone progress.  Economic deprivation promotes illness, social and mental debilitation including drug and alcohol abuse to escape the grind of misery. 

When people get shut out of the legal economy they are forced into the illegal one out of desperation.  The creation of this illegal economy and its endemic violence spawns a criminal class.  Most of this crime is committed against other poor people. Fear of this created criminal class is used to convince the rest of the population to surrender civil rights and grant more police power.  At the same time they pass laws protecting gun manufacturers against liability for the production of the profits of death.

Katrina: A look into the future for working people.

What hurricane Katrina has and will reveal is a fast forward of what the Neo Con plan is for all of America.  What the Neo Cons have been counting on is a slow steady grinding away at the fabric of the American dream, an insidious disintegration to people’s economic security that we deny, just hoping it won’t happen to us.  Encouraging you with easy credit, cheap products and a media assault to get you to buy more, to give them your capital.  All the while the mass media is trying to make us think it’s the immigrant, the poor, the terrorists that is our enemy.  The feed you the lie that if you would just have invested better, planned better, studied harder you would haven’t been subjected to the economic downfall.  We just avoid thinking about it and hope that it will be someone else who gets the lay off notice, has the devastating illness, or gets hit by a hurricane.

Now though, the curtain has been thrown away. Those who were directly in the path of Katrina will show us all the real plan.  The already poor who lived from check to check whether through the government support or as underemployed, had no assets, no owned home, no car or not one capable of using for escape, no credit cards to get a motel room or fuel up with gas.  They don’t even give payday loans even at 750% interest if you probably aren’t going to get a pay check.  They were not only stuck in New Orleans, they were utterly abandoned, by the city, the state and the federal government.  The order to evacuate was given to those who had the means to escape and the ability to afford a place to go.

In the weeks to come though, those who were already on government assistance may be in better shape then the working and middle class.  The heavily indebted middle class in hurricane Katrina’s path will begin to flounder.  Just how long can a middle class family go without a paycheck?  Even if the credit card and mortgage company suspends payments and waives late fees, interest will continue to accumulate.  Those that are insured (and it is estimated that only 50% are) will wait months for checks that will not cover all of their losses.  Homes already refinanced will go into default or be sold at flood sale prices, retirement plans will be cashed in or borrowed against, just to survive. 

It wills still cost money to live, more to rebuild. Where will it come from? With personal debt rates at there highest ever and savings almost non existent, bills will go unpaid, pay checks will not arrive, health insurance policies will lapse. The stress of homelessness, of financial uncertainty, of trauma, will all have its toll, medical, emotional and substance abuse problems will rise.  The new bankruptcy laws assure the scofflaws will be held to task for their “bad decisions” for a long time. 

The thin veneer of security ripped away, the middle class will founder quickly joining the poor. New Orleans is just the weather created forerunner of the fate of a nation. To the Right this is just one more opportunity to transfer wealth from the working class to the rich. The Neo Cons will give no bid contracts to their friends, developers and speculators will legally steal huge amounts of property from desperate people and oil companies will cash in while getting government assistance.

Cooperative Survival or Hegemony of the Rich?

The real issue is that the problems of the planet are insolvable by capitalism.  The Neo Cons know this.  Global warming, population control, depletion of resources, these problems must be solved by radical world wide changes in the economy and its impacts.  But people before profits is not the Neo Con model, capitalism by its very nature values property over people, the masses are a another commodity, just a labor pool to be exploited to create their wealth and serve their needs.

The solution lies in the regeneration of communal decision making, based on common interests, local economies, environmental sustainability, the end of militarism.  These are all things the Neo Cons fear because they mean loss of their status, power and privilege.  In their world, problems created by their policies are not to be solved but just new economic opportunities to be taken advantage of.  In fact I listened to a couple of congressman discuss maybe it would be better to have Wal-Mart handle disasters. Yea, really.

As the waves of Kristina ripple through the Neo Con economy it may turn into a category five recession for the poor, working and middle class in the rest of the country.  As gas prices slow down the economy, more people fall through a tattered safety net, lose their health care, become more desperate, do you have any doubts that the Administration’s response will be “drop dead”?  To little to late is not an act of incompetence it is policy.  It is obvious that the desertion of everyone but the rich, is the long term plan for Neo Con America to anyone who has watched the events of the last five years.  New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulf Port this is just Neo Con America compressed in a week.  Your choice is to wait until it finally happens to you or to take action. What will you choose?

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