A Tsunami of Stupidity

We give them money; are they grateful?
No they're spiteful and they're hateful.

--Randy Newman, "Political Science"


In the wake of the tsunami--death toll now estimated 150,000--Dubya emerged on the third day from his Crawford retreat to deliver tidings of comfort and joy. He pledged $35 million for disaster relief. Just think: almost as much in aid for the one of the greatest natural disasters of the last hundred years as he is likely to spend celebrating his re-election on inauguration day! It was only after a few days of being called a cheapskate by the world that Bush uped the figure to $350 million.

In the light of the this reluctant good samaritanism, consider again the current justification for our war in Iraq: that we are there spending billions of dollars (and hundreds of lives) because of our deep and abiding love for the Iraqi people. If our occupation is motivated by compassion -- and not by greed -- why not a comparable expenditure for the tsunami victims? Are they less worthy of our love?

I've been listening off and on for the last few days to what Bill Moyers, in a recent valedictory speech, characterized as "the nattering nabobs of no-nothing radio": Beck, Limbaugh, et al (I know, I know, but they're all I can get on the radio around here...). All of these instant geniuses are suggesting that ANY disaster relief we offer is more than those brown bastards deserve. "After all, we give more in humanitarian and developmental aid than the rest of the world combined and nobody appreciates it!" So saith the radio preachers.

Never mind the reality: "According to a 2001 poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes based at the University of Maryland . . . the average American believes that the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on assistance to developing nations, more than 20 times the actual figure." Whereas the money so far pledged by Sweden for tsunami relief amounts to $8.40 for each of its citizens, the money Bush initially pledged (the 35 million) amounts to "twelve cents per capita" (Charles Sennott, "Global Analysts Dispute Perceived US Generosity," the Boston Globe, 12/31/04).

Tsunami an irresistible metaphor now. For example: the tsunami of stupidity we experienced on November 2nd. Particularly in our part of Ohio. This a working-class area, suffering from severe economic depression, yet the people vote overwhelmingly to return to office a guy whose main goal as president is to loot the Treasury for the sake of his bloated plutocrat friends? A guy who is doing absolutely nothing to help working class people--is in fact positively harming them?

No, one need not have been listening all that closely on November 2nd to hear throughout Ohio's fourth district an immense collective "DUH!" The crashing of the moronic wave.