Tragedy in Black & White

Today’s Paul Krugman column, provides its usual on-target view of the Bush Administration and the current political environment. Unfortunately, the NYT instituted a new TimesSelect premium charge to view most editorials, so it not generally available. But, you can find it here.

Krugman discusses race and New Orleans, race and the Republican party:

"By three to one, African-Americans believe that federal aid took so long to arrive in New Orleans in part because the city was poor and black. By an equally large margin, whites disagree.

"But in a larger sense, the administration's lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina had a lot to do with race. . . . Race, after all, was central to the emergence of a Republican majority: essentially, the South switched sides after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Today, states that had slavery in 1860 are much more likely to vote Republican than states that didn't.

"And who can honestly deny that race is a major reason America treats its poor more harshly than any other advanced country? To put it crudely: a middle-class European, thinking about the poor, says to himself, ''There but for the grace of God go I.'' A middle-class American is all too likely to think, perhaps without admitting it to himself, ''Why should I be taxed to support those people?''

"But let me not blame the Bush administration for everything. . . . Consider this: in the United States, unlike any other advanced country, many people fail to receive basic health care because they can't afford it. Lack of health insurance kills many more Americans each year than Katrina and 9/11 combined.

"But the health care crisis hasn't had much effect on politics. And one reason is that it isn't yet a crisis among middle-class, white Americans (although it's getting there). Instead, the worst effects are falling on the poor and black, who have third-world levels of infant mortality and life expectancy.

"I'd like to believe that Katrina will change everything. . . . But I wouldn't bet on it."