Inactive Theory & Practice
C. Ray Nagin: A Flood of Excuses for an Incompetent
Consider the following by-now standard issue liberal criticism of George Bush’s performance with respect to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This is an early one, dated September 1, from the Village Voice.
Look back at Bush as the crisis gathered: He sits on his ranch. Over and over, his government issues dire warnings of the hurricane that is coming. The mayor of New Orleans starts the evacuation. Bush sits there, still on vacation. The storm strikes. Still he sits there. Then he acts. What does he do? He extends a helping hand to the oil industry, releasing some oil from the reserves and cutting pollution control. But the price of gas rises to even higher levels. The industry need more profits. Only in America can an industrial giant get away with saying there's a shortage when they're swimming in surplus. And Bush? For him, it's one more payoff to his campaign contributors.
And the people of New Orleans? They sit on the baking rooftops and sidewalks. No water. No food. No help.
What we learn from this passage is that when it comes to judgments of George Bush, one is permitted to make them very early in the game, i.e., way before the facts are in. And so, one can, on Day 1 of the crisis, ascribe the most nefarious traits and motivations to him: laziness, callousness, inexplicable inattention, greed, disdain for the environment, and sheer mercenary political calculation and back-scratching. Never mind that the ascription of traits rests on nothing more than a set of quasi-fictional speculations to which the author could not possibly have had evidential access. He doesn't need evidential access. Evidence isn't the issue in this universe.
When it comes to Mayor Nagin, however, no such judgments are permitted. One is allowed, instead, to suggest that Nagin did his job, and had things under control. Were it not for Bush, the passage implies, the people of New Orleans would not have sat baking on rooftops and sidewalks, would have had water, would have had food, would have been helped, and would have lived.
From this article, let’s turn now to what The New York Times regards as coverage of Mayor Nagin’s handling of the Katrina crisis. Bear in mind that this article comes a full three weeks after the first one—which is to say that it comes after volumes of evidence of Nagin’s manifest incompetence in the wake of the hurricane. It also comes after his decision to repopulate New Orleans contrary to the advice of federal authorities--before the levees were repaired and as a second hurricane approached. And it follows his abrupt and chaotic reversal of that decision under pressure of the authorities he’s spent the last three weeks deriding (and praising and deriding as political expediency dictates).
Read carefully, the article provides ample evidence of Nagin’s laziness, inattention, and propensity for sheer mercenary political calculation. What is remarkable is that having offered just this evidence, it quotes sources desperately willing to make a veritable flood of excuses for Nagin—excuses, we might say, piled high enough to drown a city twice over. I've listed some of these below, preceding each with a translation into plain English.
1. Plain English: Nagin screwed up. Excuse-English:But “they say with pride here” that that just makes Nagin “plain different.”There is, however, one straightforward passage that puts all of the preceding in perspective:
2. Plain English:Before the crisis Ray "Cable Guy" Nagin had less experience with politics, disaster control, or even common sense than Michael “Arabian Horses” Brown. Excuse-English: “Mostly, he seems to be unapologetically making it up as he goes along….” “That kind of bravado is classic Nagin, an unorthodox politician of 49 who was a top cable executive before he ran for mayor three years ago…” “Others attribute his stumbles to an unfamiliarity with practical politics that pre-dated Hurricane Katrina.”
3. Plain English:He made a moronic judgment threatening thousands of lives and dogmatically stuck by it despite its transparently moronic quality. Excuse-English:“He retreated with sword raised.”
4. Plain English:He is willing to gamble with people’s lives out of sheer political expediency. Excuse-English:“Those who know Mr. Nagin and know New Orleans attribute his rush [to repopulate New Orleans] to three factors: Nagin chemistry, politics and race, with a dash of civic pride thrown in.”
5. Plain English He is great at dishing out criticism but can’t bear to take any. Excuse-English:“Mr, Nagin, who declined to be interviewed for this article, maintains that politics was not his motive in trying to reopen his city quickly.”
6. Plain English: He seems to think that he is immune from criticism or the application of standards, and for some odd reason, many people seem to agree with him. Excuse-English: “Instead of facing political oblivion, Mr. Nagin has emerged as something of a folk hero…” Mr. Nagin was nothing but “a victim of Washington and Ms. Blanco, whose reputation has suffered while his seems to be holding.” “You experience accountability in other places…Here, while everybody wants something from government, nobody expects something from government.”
Mr. Nagin did not get everyone out, did not fire up the school buses for evacuees, did not have enough food or water for them in the Superdrome or the convention center, did not protect people adequately and let the looters loot so he could make rescues the priority.What we have here, in short, is a repetition of the Michael Moore phenomenon: an irresponsible demagogue who achieves hero status despite his irresponsibility as liberals make excuses for him--in full awareness of that irresponsibility.
None of what I’ve said here should be construed as exoneration of the Bush Administration. An Administration that habitually confuses nepotism and merit deserves what this Administration is getting. But it would take coals to Newcastle at this point to join in that particular chorus of condemnation. Bush deserves criticism, but when it comes to that, cosi fan tutte: they all do it. Shouldn’t the standards of criticism that apply to Bush apply to Nagin? More modestly, wouldn’t it be nice to apply some standards rather than none?
- Nagin by Drunken Editor (February 1, 2006 at 8:45 AM)
When you are finished with the comments for this entry, close the window to return to the blog.
