Dumb Anti-Government Arguments

Shorter Ruben Navarette: Because the government failed to respond properly after Hurricane Katrina, we should never expect the government to help us. Therefore, Barack Obama's economic plans are misguided.

I often wonder how people like Navarette get to write for major news organizations. Maybe they were once qualified and then got lazy when they started cashing those big paychecks. Because this is just plain silly. Government has helped people out many, many times in American history. But almost always when Democrats are in power. The New Deal? The Great Society? LBJ did a great job getting the federal government to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Betsy struck the city in 1965.

But Navarette is using a slight of hand that should be obvious to anyone who pays the least amount of attention: he is using the failure of Republican governance to attack Democrats. Yes, if John McCain is elected president, Americans should not expect the government to help them effectively if they are in need. But there is no evidence that Democrats would fail in the same way. Except that conservatives want you to think that in order to keep you voting against your own interests.