WHILE Hurricane Katrina was a human tragedy of immeasurable proportions, in its aftermath it displayed the inhuman inequalities that put wide segments of the American public in desperate economic conditions.
In the days following the storm, the images confirmed the fact that the brunt of the death toll was being bore by those who were too poor to evacuate the city, and too ignored by the political establishment to be given adequate assistance in the days following the storm.
While many leaders have rightly faulted the Bush administration for its lethargic response to the crisis, the roots of much of the suffering in the aftermath of Katrina lies with the nation's worsening economic inequities. Moreover, these inequalities have been exacerbated by dangerous changes in the focus of American politics.
These changes have caused both parties to cater to the interests of a small minority of suburban swing voters through a series of symbolic political quarrels, at the expense of the interests of millions of Americans that exist outside the affluent middle class culture.
In the 35 years after President Johnson's Great Society Programs which lowered poverty rates from 22.2 percent in 1963 to 12.6 percent in 1970, the government has failed to fully address the problems of working class and poor Americans. In the subsequent years the poverty rate has stagnated, standing at 12.7 percent in 2004 and economic inequality has snowballed.According to The Economist, from 1979 to 2000, the real income of the wealthiest one percent of American households rose by 184 percent while the real income of the poorest fifth rose by only 6.4 percent. The results of this trend is that, today, the top one percent of American households took in a staggering one quarter of the nation's personal income.
The human consequences of this inequality are reflected by a report released on Aug. 30 by the U.S. Census Bureau that said that 37 million Americans, including 23 percent of the population of New Orleans, lives below the poverty line. For many victims of Hurricane Katrina, the same inequalities that denied them access to quality healthcare and education also made them unable to afford the transportation out of the inundated city that would have saved their lives.
Although the rise of poverty and inequality have had tremendous consequences for millions of Americans, a casual observer has no idea of these problems from watching American political discourse. Since the 1980s, Democrats and Republicans have largely formed a consensus around slashing numerous government assistance programs in order to cut taxes in an attempt to woo swing voters in the middle class.
The trend toward Democratic acquiescence on issues of economic equality culminated in the agreement leading figures of the Democratic Party reached with the Democratic Leadership Council to embark on a strategy of "triangulation" in which Democrats would support cut back on government programs in order to win a larger share of suburban voters. In place of conflicts over wide ranging reforms, partisans among the ranks of liberals and conservatives now save their most strident pressure for fights over symbolic issues of the culture war that are much less relevant to the lives of average Americans.
This trend has come to its climax over the past year as the partisan vitriol of the culture war has risen to unprecedented levels, while the material concerns of poor Americans havefaded away from the public consciousness. Indeed, while media elites were heralding the rise of the "moral values" voter in 2004, barely a word was uttered about the fact that 1.1 million American's fell below the poverty line in 2004, or the fact that President Bush slashed funding for reinforcing levies in New Orleans by 20 percent. The victims of Hurricane Katrina who huddled in the New Orleans Convention Center must have wondered what happened to these moral values as they waited for relief for three days amidst the smell of decaying corpses and cries of starving babies.
If political leaders are to address the social inequalities that exacerbated the suffering from Hurricane Katrina, the Democratic Party must take the lead by reaffirming its long-standing commitment to equality in economic opportunity and social justice. To this end, Democratic leaders should make it clear that commitment to equal access to healthcare, investment in education and ambitious social assistance programs to the working class are non-negotiable cornerstones of the party's values. Ultimately, these problems will only be addressed if Democratic leaders ease their reliance on symbols of the culture war and reframe the political debate around these national priorities.
If Democratic leaders are successful in once again making social justice a national priority, Americans can address these problems before another catastrophe makes the public aware of the deadly consequences of economic depravation.
Adam Keith is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at akeith@cavalierdaily.com
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