Why We Must Make Sandy Political
by Kristin IversenPage 2 of 2
When the debate moderator asked, “Including disaster relief, though?” Romney said, “We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.”
Basically, Romney wants to allow the private sector to handle the disaster in New York and, indeed, all up and down the Eastern seaboard. Perhaps it’s because Romney thinks that the kind of disaster that occurred because of Sandy is virtually impossible. In fact, as Forbes reported in August, Romney treated the “rising sea levels” that we’re dealing with “as a mere rhetorical device, a laugh line to mock Barack Obama‘s grandiosity. And he milked it for a few long seconds as the crowd at the Republican National Convention laughed.”
The Romney camp wanted us all to forget that; post-Sandy, it continued campaigning under the guise of “hurricane relief.” But we should not forget. We should not forget that while party politics are a grim and dirty game—and that many members of the Democratic Party have their own shady history—Mitt Romney is on record as stating that he does not support the efforts of FEMA at times of disaster relief. Romney believes that it is “immoral” to add to the deficit in order to help people who are in desperate need through no fault of their own. Romney does not, however, believe it is immoral to spend on the military or to be all warmonger-y with Iran in an attempt to win over certain segments of the voting population. And Romney is the face of the Republican Party; his beliefs are theirs.
It is important to politicize this hurricane because many of the people who are desperately in need of help right now will only be able to get it from the government. Even if you are lucky enough not to be one of those people in need, knowing the circumstances that these people are in, knowing that next time it could be you, are you really ready to support a party who will blithely take it all away? And why shouldn’t they? Romney and the rest can take care of themselves. They don’t care about you. Don’t forget that. It might be the most important thing to remember as we recover, together, and look toward the future.
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