The task at hand is to clean out Washington.
Katrina vanden HeuvelEditor’s Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt of Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, last seen haplessly offering up conservative nostrums in response to the president’s 2009 State of the Union address, is now begging for the federal government to act. "BP is the responsible party, but we need the federal government to make sure they are held accountable and that they are indeed responsible," Jindal said after surveying the oil spill impact on the Louisiana coastline last week.
Jindal raised eyebrows by departing from the old Republican text in this way. But actually, what’s surprising is that after the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, the worst mining disaster in 30 years, and what is now the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history, more conservatives aren’t revising the gospel about the blessings of deregulation and the horrors of government. Despite what should be obvious failings, deregulation, smaller government and privatization remain central to the dominant Republican message.
Read the rest of Katrina’s column at the WashingtonPost.com.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.