It's the infrastructure, stupid!

If ever there were a time that the Republican mantra of limited government and limited taxation were shown to be bankrupt, it is now. Katrina has demonstrated amply what happens when you deprive society's basic infrastructure of sustenance: it fails, and it fails dramatically.

For at least two decades now, the Democrats have also failed to demonstrate that they are the party of responsible adulthood. Republicans, in times of budget surplus, advocate blowing it all on a big tax-cut party. Forget saving for a rainy day -- let's just go binge! The Clinton administration largely went along with this philosophy as well, portraying its few moments of reinvestment as anomalous.

This attitude doesn't work for families or businesses -- why should it work for the government? Those same tax cutters deride families who don't save, and no business gives much in the way of dividends any more. Reinvestment is the watchword of successful America. Why do we exempt the government from that?

So many aspects of the current disaster would have panned out differently if an adequate infrastructure had been in place. The obvious pieces are a better levee system, a more thoroughly developed emergency plan, and a national guard that's actually at home. But the less obvious ones are the real keys to how this horror has played out.

• A safety net that truly reduced the yawning gap between rich and poor would have resulted in fewer underlying resentments among New Orleans' poor. It is those resentments, that default lack of trust in government, that has fueled belief in all manner of horrifying rumors spread among those left behind in the city right now. If you have experienced government neglect and indifference for most of your life, why wouldn't you believe that they are simply leaving you to die now that the worst has come to pass?

• Explicit, honest attention to our nation's history of racism would, in similar fashion, begin to address the centuries of well-founded distrust that black people have for the largely white power structure. Why have we not had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the same way South Africa did? The racism is there, and we continue to ignore it at our peril.

• A healthcare system that was well-funded and equitably distributed, by government, not by for-profit insurance companies would have provided for better attention and evacuation procedures both for those who were sick prior to the disaster, and for those who have been sickened by the lack of food and water brought on by the flooding. From all reports, the medical personnel in New Orleans have been nothing short of heroic in their response. But there are too few of them to truly serve the needs.

• A response to drug addiction that focuses on treatment and provides support against relapse would have reduced, in advance, the number of addicts now imposing their withdrawal symptoms upon the helpless refugees left in the city. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin asked the other day that folks acknowledge the impact of the drug trade on his city. He noted that an enormous number of addicts have been abruptly cut off from their supplies of drugs, sending them into sudden withdrawal. Withdrawal, in combination with the other deprivations and shocks of the disaster, leads addicts to take desperate, anti-social steps. Much of the more violent looting, attacks on medical personnel, and other assaults, is likely attributable to drugs.
  

These are just a few of the basic features of an adequate infrastructure -- of a decent society -- that would have largely mitigated the effects of this disaster. But to have them in place before the worst occurs, you need to be responsible and forward-looking. You need to invest before the crisis arrives, in anticipation of the worst.

We have a generation of leaders who are not willing to say to the electorate, "Be responsible!" except when it means, "You're on your own, government's not gong to help you out." What we need is government that remembers -- proclaims -- that it is in fact of the people and for the people, and must take actions to take care of the people it represents. Take care of them in advance, lead them into responsible, forward-looking actions, and away from the party-all-the-time mentality.

It is beyond time for our leaders to mature out of adolescence and into adulthood.