Can someone explain conservative white Republicans reaction to Katrina?

[HamdenRice]

I haven't been able to stop thinking about a Brooks NYT column I read about a week ago, because in a way, it doesn't make sense. Well, a lot of Brooks' columns don't make sense, but the facts he was discussing were perplexing.

Brooks said he had talked to a number of conservative republican representatives who had recently returned to their home districts. According to these representatives, their base is furious at the Bush administration's handling of Katrina and the scenes of chaos and Third World conditions in New Orleans -- the fury that Americans were treated like that.

But I would have expected conservative republicans to react to the horrific conditions in NO the way Michael Chertoff or Rush Limbaugh did -- to blame the victims for their poverty. Before he understood the magnitude of the outrage, Chertoff blithly stated that the people of NO had made "bad choices" implying that it was not the government's role to help them after their errors.

I once read that a certain kind of conservative white republican may have racist feelings, but does not want to be seen to be racist or want the party to be seen to be racist. The abundant African American window dressing at republican conventions according to this view, is not actually to recruit black people to the party, but to be seen as though they are interested in recruiting black people to the party.

Why were so many conservative white republicans outraged at Katrina? Was it genuine empathy? Was it self interest -- namely concern that a government that could allow that disaster to happen would not be capable of protecting them? Was it because they did not want their country to be seen to be a incompetent Third World nation? Or were they dismayed by the blatant racism of the response, even though they are not particularly concerned with confronting more subtle racism?

I really can't figure their reaction out.

[tavalon]

1. I think they got swept up in the general feeling

like after 9/11.

Everyone, with the exception of anyone connected to the Bush regime, was horrified and they went along. It's common groupthink mentality. The more important question is how do they feel about it now that the initial shock and rage has eased?

[beyurslf]

2. Something else entirely. They don't like seeing images of the US that look

like the third world. If that can happen here, then maybe there is something wrong with the country. It makes the whole country look bad and damages our standing. This is what upsets them.

[LSdemocrat]

3. They couldn't believe that America was so powerless

Bush completely failed in crisis leadership which opened their eyes to a certain extent.

[Ian David]

4. Operation “Drown the Negroes"... Operation “Blame the Fags" kicks-in

Friday, September 02, 2005
As Operation “Drown the Negroes” falters...

...Operation “Blame the Fags” kicks into high gear.

Take a good look at the news Republicans. A looooong fucking look, because at no real risk to yourself (which we know is just how you like it) you have been given a great and rare gift for which others have paid a terrible price.

I'm dead serious when I say that in New Orleans you have been vouchsafed a glimpse into the future of your deepest wettest dreams.

Behold, the Ownership Society...

More:
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2005/09/as-operation-drown-negroes-falters.html

[patrice]

5. They got caught with their pants down.

Brownie was just toooooooooooooooo much! too embarassing. They had to save face.

They have many dyed-in-the-wool Racists in their midst and also people who hate Catholics.

[XemaSab]

6. Might be genuine empathy

Most of the real base is a paycheck or two away from being in the same circumstances.

[MasonJar]

7. I happened to be driving in my car the day Bob Edwards was

interviewing Jerktoff. It was so amazing I almost had an accident (I was so horrified) while the poor reporter in NO was on the line with Bob while he was interviewing our illustrious head of Homeland Security. The reporter was actually almost hysterical because of the horror he was seeing at the Convention Center. Chertoff insisted, and not very nicely, that there were no people at the Convention Center. Bob kept after him, passing on what the reporter was saying. Chertoff totally brushed him off, insisting that he did not know what he was talking about. I was so appalled and angry I wanted to reach through the radio and slap the idiot.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. As much as we might think otherwise

and even joke about it, white conservatives are actually human beings. Some are racists, and some are not. In the case of Katrina, however, even a racist could feel anger.

Because really, what are racists? By definition, they are people who make judgments based upon a person's race before other criteria. The judgments tend to be negative (although I have plenty of teacher colleagues who assume all Asian kids are bright) as in, "that person is black so he/she must be...." (fill in the blanks with negative stereotypes) And they might make decisions about, say, hiring, or living next to minorities, or working with them, based on that. But most are not sociopaths and don't wish them ill. They don't take pleasure out of seeing them thirst, die in the streets, etc. A kind racist is not an oxymoron. Personally I think racism increases inversely with intelligence and perhaps also with education. I actually had a conversation with a woman I work with (not a teacher) who was especially angry that black people had been left to die in N.O. because in her opinion they are "like children" and need special care. Remember I live in the deep, deep south and this woman thinks she is a kind person. What do you say when somebody spouts that kind of nonsense? She was straight out of the pages of Gone With the Wind. Racist, yes. But not an evil person. Just a product of her own limitation, her own ignorance.

[HamdenRice]

14. I understand the traditional type you are describing

It reminds me of something a friend once told me. His father married into a liberal white southern family. He would hear the most incredibly racist stuff from that family's neighbors, but at the same time their friends and neighbors were black and they were close to them. That's the southerns schizo mentality.

Maybe I was assuming that the base these guys were talking about wasn't traditional southern conservative, but neo-conservative.

Neocons are deeply into so called neo-liberal economic theory, in which everyone is supposed to be a "rational actor" and pay for the cost of their behavior.

That's really the message of Chertoff -- you made a bad decision staying in NO, now you have to pay for it. This type ignores the fact that a person might not be able to afford a car, or might even ben a nursing home resident. That was Rush's message -- well, why were they poor to begin with?

So I guess, I pegged the base as the wrong kind of conservative.

[sniffa]

9. i thought it was..

they were furious bush pLedged to rebuiLd the coast with their 'hard earned tax doLLars' :shrug:

[Jacobin]

10. The Ultra Rich are embarrassed on the world stage that

they 'don't take care of their help' and 'let them suffer too much'.

Some white folks like to be seen as compassionate and caring to 'the help'.

this embarrassed them enormously among their uber rich friends from other countries.

[SoCalDem]

11. Because someone let the monster out of the attic for all to see

As long as the poverty and indignity of the poor there was a "local knowledge" thing, it was no biggie.. the poor blacks opf NOLA were a "cottage industry"..."local ambience".. Really poor people do not get heard often, and tend to blend into the background..

BUT..when they are wall-to-wall on CNN and the whole world now knows about just HOW poor they are and how LITTLE they matter, it "looks bad"...

republicans are like fluffy white meringue..looks pretty, but very little substance to it, and subjected to enough heat, it dissolves into nothing but a small wet stain ....

[AspenRose]

12. Nice....

"meringue republicans..."

Much more apropo than a "merlot democrat"

[SoCalDem]

13. of course they would call themselves marang republicans

and would never find it in the dictionary :rofl: