Republicans are weak on national defense. It really is that simple. If the threat is military, then they're strong on defense, but actual military threats to the United States are pretty rare. And they're big on fighting terrorism -- unfortunately, in ways that whittle away the freedom they say they're trying to defend. But get away from those threats and they could really care less. If the threat to the nation is not human, then they really have no interest in it. With Hurricane Irene come and gone, we see that the GOP's message to those affected by disaster, had they had their way, would be "sucks to be you."
And, of course, the rationale is that government does more harm than good. Katrina proved that, when the president and the head of FEMA are incompetents, that's probably true. Irene proves that, when the people running things are both qualified and give a damn, it's not true at all. But don't expect Republicans to admit that, because -- as I've already pointed out -- they're weak on national defense. It's an ideology-based weakness, so they're going to ignore all evidence to the contrary. It's what they do.
Here's an example of real world, common, day-to-day national defense in action, courtesy of Dana Milbank:
On Monday, six years to the day after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans and obliterated the notion of a competent federal government, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate offered an anecdote that showed just how different things were with Hurricane Irene...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
