A S THE GOP party faithful have spent all week being whipped into their anti-government frenzy, Hurricane Isaac - which bypassed Tampa but has done damage to New Orleans - should be reminding everyone why government services are essential and why atrophied government invites disaster.
When Katrina hit in 2005, Americans watched fellow citizens dying on national television, wondering with exasperation why federal resources were not deployed to help.
Abject failures on the state and local level made matters even worse. So did poorly constructed levees. But that's the thing: cops, EMTs, troops, FEMA, the Coast Guard (which performed admirably) bulkheads, floodgates, they cost money. Tax money.
