The Bush Administration's response to the California wildfires

The images coming out of California of crowds of people taking refuge in a sports arena and of Michael Chertoff and people from FEMA going to "survey the damage" are eerily reminiscent of the images we saw two years ago coming out of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The main difference in these images from those of two years ago is the skin color of those who have been displaced.

The Bush Administration is clearly hoping that it can redeem its own image over disaster preparedness by handling the California wildfires and those displaced by them far better than it did the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. And of course those of us not living California hope so too. However, the socioeconomic difference between those displaced now and those displaced two years ago has already affected how they are treated:

Like Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years earlier in New Orleans, thousands of people rousted by natural disaster fled to the NFL stadium here, waiting out the calamity and worrying about their homes.

The similarities ended there, as an almost festive atmosphere reigned at Qualcomm Stadium.

Bands belted out rock 'n' roll, lavish buffets served gourmet entrees, and massage therapists helped relieve the stress for those forced to flee their homes because of wildfires.

"The people are happy. They have everything here," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Monday night after his second Qualcomm tour.

Cue the race-baiters to talk about uncivilized black people, right? Except for one thing:

At Qualcomm, thousands of tents, many set up by relief organizations, provided temporary roofs, while hundreds of people slept on open-air cots. Some elderly evacuees were housed in stadium club boxes.

Aggressive efforts by disaster-response officials to bring supplies helped ensure civility. A heavy police contingent and National Guard troops with automatic weapons stood by just in case.

The New Orleans evacuees had dragged themselves through floodwaters to get to the Louisiana Superdome in 2005, and once there endured horrific conditions without food, sanitation or law enforcement.

But these evacuees drove to the expansive parking lots in the San Diego suburbs. The worst that most endured in their exodus was heavy traffic and smoky haze.

[snip]

Most people seemed happy for the free food and drink. A Hyatt hotel catered one buffet, offering chicken with artichoke hearts and capers in cream sauce, jambalaya and shredded-beef empanadas.

And as Melina notes below, there are perhaps thousands of farm workers, many of them illegal, who are probably hiding in the hills around San Diego, too terrified to seek help. Many of these people will be the casualties of these fires -- and no one will ever know about them, because Chris Matthews will once again wax rhapsodic at the phallic mastery of George W. Bush if the latter manages to do something that vaguely resembles his job.

I'm in no way trying to minimize the horrors being experienced by Californians watching their homes and everything they own go up in flames. Nor am I saying that displaced people shouldn't be helped as much as possible. Many of those we know in Blogtopia(™ Skippy) are affected at least peripherally by these fires -- people like John Amato, Hoffmania, and Digby.

But as you see if you read the link to Digby, the wingnuts are trying desperately to find a way to paint what is happening to California as being deserved, because people in California "hate America." Presumably Glenn Beck, who uttered these words, thinks that everyone in California is liberal -- a surprising assumption given the revival of the Republican Party's attempt to win the 2008 election in the only way it knows how and in pure George Bushian fashion -- by changing the rules in midstream.

So herein lies the dilemma for the Bush Administration: Does an effective response to those displaced by the California wildfires redeem their dismal one when the victims were disproportionately dark-skinned and poor? Or is it just another sign that Kanye West waas right? Or will it be perceived by the denizens of Wingnuttia as a diversion of efforts to America-haters? This, friends, is the catch-22 that happens when you opearte according to the kind of divisive politics that has been the Republicans' bread and butter for a generation.

I hope that the Administration doesn't fuck this up. I hope that those who have lost everything aren't fucked over by their insurance companies. I hope these fires stop soon, and I hope everyone is OK.