Dan Carol

Post-Katrina Reality Check

So it's a pleasure to be doing a guest blogging gig for DMI. There aren't many groups out there who are trying to move message and policy on middle class issues and investment economics, let alone doing it in a way that isn't dry -- but in fact is creatively framed and understands to the core that message has to actually move people to move policy. To which I say, bravo. Because we need a new breed of think tanks and DMI is a real harbinger of the right direction.

What to write about? Well, I could moan and groan about the state of the world here on Day 1407 (or whatever day it is) of the Bush Administration but thought I'd use this week to instead try and sketch out where I think progressives stand in the post-Katrina moment.

Today I am going to take a crack at outlining the situation from 10,000 foot level. Then in subsequent days I will try and offer up some ideas and solutions to fix some of the identified challenges.

So where are progressives? Well, I don't think they sit any worse off than any other political group or institution. That's because I think that Katrina is just the latest example of massive institutional failure in our society that is leading to a complete realignment of which organizations people trust. This time local-state and the federal government have taken a well-deserved and severe hit in public confidence, joining past crises that have shaken our trust in churches safely watching over our children, in schools educating our kids to compete internationally without more reform, in baseball players not lying over steroids, and our business leaders not ripping us off a la Enron and Worldcom. Hell, even the Red Cross took on some water in New Orleans for failing to move fast enough at the Convention Center.

But while progressives and Democrats will be struggling to build brand loyalty in the years to come, so will Republicans and conservatives whose Halliburton-S&L privatization schemes of the last 20 years don't look so hot anymore.

Thus at 10,000 feet, the first challenge for progressives post-Katrina is simply to understand that no political grouping right now --us included-- has the credibility to be trusted to fix anything. Frankly, it's all up for grabs --for the foreseeable future skeptical citizens will be looking at message ping pong between well-meaning proposals for New-New-Deals involving what will be perceived as potentially wasteful Big Guvment from Democrats versus more of the same "let Halliburton fix it" pablum from Team Cheney and the Cronyists on the right. Voters won't want either of these options -- they will want to see something new that seems no-nonsense and trustworthy. So until this realignment of loyalties takes shape, the only institution that people will trust to perform effectively and restore the semblance of order is probably the military. Weird, huh? More on that come Tuesday.

Where else do progressives sit post-Katrina? Well, our second challenge is to figure out how to justify investment spending in an era of permanent federal budget deficits that will crowd out new money for infrastructure and domestic spending on us. That'll be a post for Wednesday.

Perhaps most importantly, progressives are also split between calls for justice in the wake of Katrina and calls for jobs. They are also split emotionally between justifiable ANGER and an absence of HOPE. (In case you didn't follow it, what went down this weekend at The Millions More March is big stuff. Russell Simmons, the Progressive Baptist National Convention, Harry Belafonte, the NAACP and Louis Farrakhan are all really-really ticked off and their Gathering grows.)

How can we bridge these two calls for action? Can we? Will the change come from faith or from framing -- well, I'll save that amen post for the end of the week.

Dan Carol: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 11:21 AM, Oct 17, 2005 in Progressive Agenda
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