Pharyngula: Republican Failure, Republican Blame

I agree in part with Mike Dunford, who thinks there is plenty of blame to go around. It's true that the catastrophe in New Orleans is due to many factors—uncontrollable ones, like the probability of a large hurricane striking the city; passive ones, like Democrats and scientists not fighting stupidity hard enough; active ones, like the dedicated work of Republicans to gut government effectiveness. In a sense, yes, we can say that the disaster is the fault of all Americans.

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We have to wake up. Mike is right to blame scientists and Democrats and all American citizens for allowing this leadership disaster to happen, but we have to look to the source of the decisions that led us to this place. We have to recognize what the goals of the Republican party are.

The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole.

Not by explicit intent, of course, but by neglect, the promotion of incompetence, and short-sightedness. By treating government as a kleptocracy. By governing badly. By pandering to the stupid, by advocating superstition (let's pray and send bibles to New Orleans!), by poisoning our educational system with nonsense, by haring off on destructive wars that enrich corporate cronies, by belittling expertise and favoring ideology, by ignoring freaking reality.