Pale Cale

Kesällä asiat saavat uuden muodon. John Cale heittää tiukan setin täydelle Tavastialle. Kaikki ovat innoissaan (paitsi se pojan nilkki joka arvostelee keikan Hesariin, ja jonka yhteystiedot ovat jo matkalla Moskovaan). Jatkoilla dr. Muzan salakapakassa kuuluisan kapellimestarin poika analysoi Zappan musaa. Kukaan ei ole innoissaan. Onneksi tyypille tulee kiire aamun valjetessa jatkamaan never ending touriaan Tallinkille.

Tässä kaupungissa on liikaa kuuluisien isien lahjakkaita poikia. Pelikenttä on muuttunut. Alemman tason elukat ajavat ohitse, eivätkä ymmärrä mikä oli pelin henki joskus kun hyvinvointivaltion koulutuskoneistoja ei oltu saatu vielä toimimaan. Mutta mikä oli pelin henki tänään, sitä ihmettelemme viimeistään jonkin päivän huomisena, toteamme lähtiessämme salille hormooniukkojen kanssa heittämään nykyisen elämämme hetulaa.

John Calen keikalle lähetetyt harmaisiin teryleenihousuihin ja läskipohjakenkiin pukeutuneet tyypit kuvataan tietenkin, ja kuvat lähetetään seuraavana päivänä analysoitaviksi hermokeskukseen. Samalla pistän joka viikkoisen raporttini erään julkisen hallinnon organisaation koodaajista Silicon Valleyhin naurettavaksi. Nämä kun edustavat tietoteknisissä taidoissaan vuotta 1997, jolloin vielä uskottiin kyettävän kätkemään jälkensä verkossa. Mutta nuokin jäljet jäivät jäljelle parin tyypin arkistoidessa varmuuden vuoksi kaiken silloisen nettiliikenteen. Että terkut vaan; älkää ihmetelkö jos pimenee jossain vaiheessa kesken tärkeitä "koodaushommianne". Vain elämää, ei sen enempää on kaikki tää, kuten Irwin lauleskeli.

Samaan aikaan toisaalla, kaikkialla, sota jatkuu, sota. The Conservetive Voice lataa päivän sodanjulistuksen. Maailma nähdään jälleen sodan termein. Sauli Niinistön mukaan nyt käydään kolmatta maailmansotaa hupenevista energiaresursseista. Mutta rikkaiden ja köyhien välisessä kamppailussakin katsotaan tarpeelliseksi vielä lyödä lyöyjä:

Katrina Relief a Microcosm of Welfare State
June 18, 2006 10:58 AM EST

During his 1994 Contract with America tour, one of Newt Gingrich’s pet themes was the unchecked growth of the welfare state. He spoke of federal food stamps as just another form of currency.

He said that the problem was just an indicator of the dire need for welfare reform and that unless Republicans got control of Congress, things would only get worse. America agreed, and we gave the GOP the reins of power. Now, eleven years into Republican control of the U.S. House and Senate and five years into a Republican presidency, and despite a sweeping welfare reform bill a decade ago, we now learn of a massive federal boondoggle involving the FEMA funds handed out like candy to Hurricane Katrina “victims.” My question: What did we expect?

The key element that seems to have escaped the president and the GOP leadership now in control of Congress is that, quite simply, they are not in control of the agenda. The socialist entitlement programs that have plagued our Republic since FDR have become so entrenched that any serious discussion of their merit is automatically precluded. Too many of us have simply accepted the idea that government should care for us in our time of need.

The frightening thing for those of us with a stubborn libertarian streak is that this mentality has now permeated every level of every federal bureaucracy, regardless of which party is in power. In the last decade, it has even permeated state government thinking as well.

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, was the quintessential showcase of the squalor produced by 75 years of the welfare state. Filled with poor, dependent, minority citizens, living below sea level in a city protected by inadequate levees and ruled by some of the most corrupt politicians ever to buy an election, the rest of the country understands that this city was a disaster waiting to happen. We all understand it, but no one wants to talk about it.

After Hurricane Katrina, the immediate clamor was for the federal government to throw billions of our tax dollars at the problem. FEMA was not doing enough quickly enough! More had to be done now! In a knee-jerk response to this incessant badgering from the press and Democrats eager for any opportunity to embarrass the Bush Administration, debit cards were handed out to anyone and everyone, without so much as a pretense of accountability. Individuals who listed their addresses as post office boxes received multiple payments for having their “homes” destroyed. Caribbean vacations, $200-per-bottle Dom Perignon champagne, season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games, pornography, divorce lawyers and sex change operations were just a few of the outrageous items purchased.

Again, the question must be asked: What did we expect? We handed debit cards to irresponsible, displaced people with nothing to lose, told them they were as good as cash for any purpose whatsoever — and then expected an outcome other than the massive fraud that has resulted.

There is a silly liberal idea that human beings are basically good and will do the right thing when given the opportunity. That idea should be thrown onto the garbage heap of discredited notions after this fiasco, but I would not bet the farm on it, because this problem is now systemic. Three quarters of a century of being told that the nanny-state is our salvation has taken its toll. The elite media, our mediocre government schools and federal bureaucrats themselves have beaten the drum of socialism for so long, the idea of individual initiative and personal responsibility has almost disappeared from our national lexicon. For too long, we have accepted the idea that dependent people are helpless and therefore must be given money out of the federal treasury whenever they are in trouble, and apparently, no one has the guts to say “no!”

© Copyright 2006 by Doug Patton

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor to conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net