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Wind Behind the Rain

"Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...."

 It doesn't always just sweep:  sometimes it comes with teeth and a savage tail.  First, the tornado went through Moore, Oklahoma.


"And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet, when the wind comes right behind the rain."

But the wind, right behind the rain, is often just a politician saying something inane, something like arguing that helping God-fearin' Oklahomans after a tornado is nothing like helping yellow-bellied, East Coast Liberals after Hurricane Sandy. Or that maybe Nancy Pelosi and her confounded Climate Change is just a way to take advantage of good, Bible Belt believin' folks who need a hand.  

It takes moxie, or a numb skull, to stand before people who have lost their homes and--some--family members and friends, and argue that government aid to tornado or hurricane or flood victims is a bad idea because government is bad.  (That sounds simple-minded, and it is.)  A lot of us sent money to the Red cross, or other aid groups, and Kevin Durant, an Oklahoma Thunder basketball player, gave a million dollars!, but all those wonderful expressions of care pale when compared to what 300 million fellow citizens can do together, by paying taxes, and sharing with people who need a hand.  

 Something is happening to us that is not clear to us.  The antipathy toward government, even government when it is disaster relief, means that something more fundamental is going on, and we have not found a way to say what it is.  Maybe the way we govern is at fault.  The Republican Party, one of the two major organizations that enable us to form governing bodies, is a disaster.  Bobby Jindal, a Republican himself, says it has become the Stupid Party.  Bob Dole, once the soul of Republicanism, says the Party should hang a sign on its door saying, "Closed for Repairs".  We will only need a little patience before the Democrats find some way to neuter themselves, too.

 Maybe we need a sign on the door to our political processes that reads, "Open for Repairs".  Maybe we need lots of new parties.  Maybe, maybe!  Maybe something!

 You know something is wrong when our politicians argue that disaster victims ought to do without the support of the nation:  "Wind behind the rain."


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