by David Pipkin

Created on: February 25, 2007   Last Updated: December 09, 2010

What we witnessed with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 provides for a valuable case study of the liberal/socialist democrat system of governance. Has anyone ever wondered why New Orleans so dominated the headlines in the aftermath of a storm that devastated major metropolitan cities all the way up into Mississippi?

The answer goes far beyond the geographical challenges. Sure, New Orleans is situated right on the coast, and it is basically a densely populated swampland. However, that factor was one that could have been minimized. The democrats have been in control in New Orleans for over 50 years. When the levees were built, officials had the opportunity to build them to CAT 5 standards. Instead, they chose to build the levies to CAT 3 standards. For over a decade, critics had warned that the levees were not strong enough, and should be upgraded. Why were those warnings ignored?

On August 28, 2005, the day before the storm hit, a CNN report revealed that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet in 1998." A CAT 2 hurricane (Georges) was headed straight for New Orleans, but changed course at the last-minute and instead made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi. Even missing the direct hit, the Mississippi River came within 1 foot of over-flowing the levees in New Orleans.

New Orleans was a city of people who are accustomed to reliance upon government for their very sustenance, and the government keeping them poor so they can stay in power. This is the liberal vision for society - people broken down by class and race, with enough of the populace so dumbed-down and needy that they believe the government will take care of them. They put these people on government payrolls and tell them the checks will keep coming as long as they keep voting for the democrats.

To be sure, the democrats had and still maintain a lock on the city. Amazingly enough, George W Bush and the Republican Congress took a bigger hit over Katrina than did the mayor, Ray Nagin, who was actually re-elected after overseeing the biggest fiasco in the history of local emergency management. This is a huge indicator of how much control the democrats maintain in New Orleans. It also reveals the likely reason that the levees were never upgraded - when your seat of power is so unchallenged and secure, complacency is almost unavoidable.

This complacency goes both ways. When the citizens believe that they are receiving largesse from those they elect, this fosters the perception that the government owes them and is bound by

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