The Hallmark of Incompetence-Blame Wilma’s Victims.
It’s nice to see that the trait of overconfidence followed by incompetence, followed by blame-mongering runs true in the Bush genetic code. Jeb Bush is blaming Wilma victims for not being prepared, as justification that the relief efforts are disorganized and half-assed.
Should Florida residents have prepared? You bet. Were they? Apparently not enough. Does that justify the Bushies, who have controlled Florida for much longer than just the current presidency, doing an incompetent job at one of the most important functions of government (disaster recovery) in a known hurricane zone? Not one bit.
I wish I thought this would make a big difference in how people vote for politicians, but it won’t. George Bush’s track record was there for everyone to see in 2000. As widely chronicled before he ran for President, he’d never run a successful business venture in his life. Every effort went nowhere or straight downhill until Daddy’s friends bailed him out, often in exchange for private White House meetings with Daddy.
Even Bush’s wealth ($14MM) doesn’t come from him. It comes from a single sweetheart deal in which taxpayer money was used to build a stadium for the Texas Rangers, turning Bush’s half-million-dollar investment into $14MM.
This was all quite public knowledge before he was elected the first time. He had been an alcoholic until age 40 (do you know what that does to the brain? I lived with an alcoholic relative. Going dry after that long still leaves scars). He had a track record of recklessness, fiscal irresponsibility, and failure. An entire book had been written on his competence. (Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose)
Employers don’t call references, and they are well aware that hiring the wrong person costs money. It would be great if our electorate would check out references before someone runs for public office. But we don’t, and we won’t. We’ll continue to rely on sound bites, hearsay, and slick packaging rather than real debates, issue-centered coverage, and a search to understand the problems and the candidates’ solutions.
Not only does that make me sad, but it makes a whole, whole lot of us have much scarier, terror-filled lives of scarcity, when we could all be safe, sound, and well-fed.
To Florida: you’ve had Jeb for a decade. You knew what he was capable of. You saw him bungle the logistics for two elections, disenfranchising thousands of your residents. You’re without food and water and ice. Connect the dots. YOU and YOUR VOTES are the government. Jeb’s right. You should have prepared better. You should have voted him out of office.