Katrina: All Politics is Local- and Some is Venial

Let’s take Tip O’Neil’s aphorism that “all politics is local” in another direction.

NYT reporter Tom Zeller, Jr. filed a report on how “Radical Christian Websites” are claiming that Katrina is God’s punishment for evils done in New Orleans. He balances this with quotes from a “left-leaning Catholic blog”. (One wonders why the NYT used the uppercase for “radical” and “websites.”)

Let’s assume that bloggers are able to settle this question of the contradiction between evil in the world and a loving God. After it is settled, will they be able to do anything about it? While there are numerous approaches to reducing evils such as abortion, prostitution and addiction, there are limits on what governments can accomplish. Blaming sin may make us feel virtuous, but it accomplishes little. It is not enough to be against sin; we need to look for actions that we can take in our own communities.

It seems that the meaning of “local” in Tip O’Neil’s phrase has changed. “Local” now refers to like-minded communities connected by the internet and talk radio shows. Liberals vie with each other to find convincing explanations of why the whole disaster is Bush’s fault. Conservatives do the same. Locals talking to one another about how other communities caused the disaster won’t prevent the next one; especially of they claim the disaster is punishment for some particular sin –moral or environmental.

The nation has suffered the consequences of sins of omission, i.e. failure to prepare, by a few. While we can argue the injustice of this, using big terms such as theodicy the reality is that we are all vulnerable to suffering the consequences of our own actions. On the personal level, we often have to ask God’s help in correcting our own behaviors. On the public level, we need to look for the reasons for these omissions and our role in correcting them.

We are blessed in that James Madison and the nation’s founders gave us necessary tools. The question is one of diagnosing the cause of the omission devising corrective actions.

Even at the federal level, politics is local. Administration officials, Senators and Congress-people think in terms of money and votes. Local politicians look for federal money and jobs. Federal politicians can use the money to obtain votes and accomplish legitimate public purposes. Sometimes, these two conflict with one another. Getting local votes trumps legitimate public purpose. For example, the NYT’s john Tierney reports

In rural Nevada, an area not known for hurricanes or shipping channels, the Corps has been given $20 million for construction projects. When I asked an official why so much was being spent in Nevada, he said that the money was paying for wastewater treatment and mentioned the name of Senator Harry Reid, the Democrat's leader in the Senate.
"Senator Reid is a great and good man," the Corps official explained, "and he is on our committee."

Here is another, more egregious example of a congressman, William Jefferson,

using National Guard rescue personnel to save his own property.

One can only speculate on the Guard’s motivation for cooperating. However, the fact that Congress has the power of the purse meant that Congressman Jefferson could channel funds to the local Guard. The Louisiana Guard spokesman, balancing truth and diplomacy, declined to speculate on whether this mission had detracted from the Guard’s responsibilities for search and rescue.

As Tip said, all politics is local. When local and federal politicians become venial, serving their own needs for re-election and power, we governments fail to prepare. As with Katrina, sins of omission, sometimes come back to hurt us. This is not a matter of God’s vengeance; it’s just the way it is.

What can we do? Use the tools the Constitution gives us. As an informed citizenry, we must ask for the between what we can, and can't, change. And then ask for the courage to change it.