Welcome to the new age of response politics. Not necessarily responsive politics, but response politics. It permeates everything from government procurement guidelines to telecom policy.
It is not just the White House, as Congress and federal agencies are on the defensive after being pummeled and humbled by nature’s ultimate blowhard: a horrific hurricane. Washington’s nasty politics are still as offensive as ever, but the onslaught of one natural disaster after another-combined with the dastardly man-made terror of 9/11-is forcing an across-the-board transformation of policy making.
Being proactive these days no longer means dictating the political agenda and choreographing the results, but rather not being caught unprepared to respond to emergencies involving people in harm’s way whose every wince is captured in full living color by news outlets and citizen journalists armed with camera phones and blasted worldwide over the Internet.
While the Bush pre-emption doctrine might help prevent a terrorist strike, it cannot disrupt the capricious course of Mother Nature. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and, most recently, Wilma, have laid bare in the most unabashed, unforgiving way government’s ability to care for its own when it counts most. Politics normally is making promises about a future deliverables. Hurricanes have changed the political calculus. When large numbers of people need immediate emergency care, there can be only one response. A response that is swift, meaningful and lasting-well after TV cameras are gone. Anything short of that is failure-and politicians will pay dearly.
Though the Federal Communications Commission would love to leverage wireless and other technologies to raise America’s broadband stature in the world, the agency is, after all, duty bound to promote safety of life and property. The good news is FCC Chairman Kevin Martin l, appears to be taking the safety-of-life-and-property issue seriously. Just count the number of hurricane-related press releases issued in the past two months.
But it is hard-if not impossible, owing to a government response as ugly as Katrina itself-not to be in a high-profile, high-alert mode in the normal course of business these days. This also is true for wireless and other telecom carriers whose customers are so dependent on their services.
Until now it always was assumed we were protected by the good hands people we call government. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks called that assumption into question. The death and destruction caused by the rash of hurricanes, and government’s awkward response, have caused Americans to question whether elected and unelected officials are up to the task. This state of affairs has major political and economic implications in terms of how people vote, but more importantly the confidence they place in government and America’s future.
