The State of the Democracy

NPR has been running a series of stories on post Katrina New Orleans. This report was one of the most striking and telling about the state of the democracy. On two separate occasions in this report articulate dedicated health care workers bemoan the overcrowding and long waits at the hospitals in the region and subsequent deaths as a result causally comment that there is nothing anyone can do. Nothing anyone can do?! The United States economy is the largest in the world. The federal government alone takes in trillions in tax money annually. Must I go on?

In a similar vein a majority in the national government and their supporters seem to think that it is perfectly fine to spy on US citizens and others without a warrant. This is so clearly a violation of the 4th Amendment that no one even argues that it isn't just that we need to because we are up against such a diabolical foe.

Two issue come to the fore, 1) is it not the case that the so-called conservative movement see themselves as unapproachable when it comes to the issue of the rule of law? I think this exposes that they actually do not really care about the rule of law unless it serves their interests. 2) Do we really believe that this small cabal of Jihadis is a threat to our society in any fundamental way? This group can't even take over such non-states as Iraq or horribly corrupt regimes like Egypt's or Algeria's do you really think that they are a threat here? They may be able to kill a few hundred here or there but they certainly don't justify the full resources and attention of the entire US state?

Couldn't those energies be more positively used on fixing hospitals on the Gulf or dealing with a true scourge of death; car accidents (a far greater killer than sexually repressed Islamic dudes).