Slate writer: “Racism” responsible for Atlanta’s #snOMG gridlock
I’m not quite sure if I could write a response without cursing like a sailor, so I’m submitting this ridiculous piece without (much of a) comment
Excerpt:
Then there’s the part about having “too narrow a sense of social responsibility.” Exhibit A here is the failure in 2012 of a massive $7.2 billion transportation initiative, which would have paid for sorely needed regional highway improvements and funneled $600 million into the Atlanta Beltline, an innovative proposal to link neighborhoods in the city by light rail, using 22 miles of abandoned cargo lines left over from Atlanta’s heyday as a railroad hub. To which the voters of the metropolitan Atlanta area said: Hell, no. Here is a region that even without freak snowstorms is choking on its own traffic, which has built its reputation on being a transportation hub, which is looking at a future when gas will never be less than $3 a gallon again, and all voters could think about was how much they hated government and paying taxes. They had their reasons—Georgia has no shortage of political corruption, and in 2012 the economy was still deeply in the tank—but even so, it was like watching folks refuse to get out of a burning house because they objected to the way the firemen were holding the ladder.
And, of course, there’s race. Race is a recurring motif in the long history of the city-rural divide in Georgia politics, as well as the uneasy history of relations between the leaders in City Hall and the state Capitol just down the street. Much as white Southerners despise being labeled “racist” whenever they vote Republican—and I do understand why that makes them mad—it is still a fact that you cannot separate anything in the South entirely from the question of race.
Sigh.
This kinda reminds me of the Katrina aftermath where everyone blamed Bush for the epic preparation failures rather than looking to the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans and the Democrat Governor of LA at the time. I knew eventually we’d see the same tactics used on Atlanta after the streets and highways were cleared post-snowstorm 2014. The city of Atlanta is controlled by Democrats but the state is controlled by Republicans. So naturally, we knew who eventually would be blamed for the massive gridlock as a result of the failure to act decisively before the storm hit.
At times like these, I’m reminded of this:
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” –Rahm Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago, November 2008
Sound familiar? Democrats are so boringly predictable sometimes.
BTW, as I wrote on Twitter earlier, the MSM does know that Atlanta is not the sum total of the South, right? Most places in the South handled the snowstorm quite well, including here in NC. But as usual, some journos just couldn’t resist the opportunity to get in their usual jabs and digs against the South. So tiresome.