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Re: Look at the States
By Tyler Cruse
Jan 9th 2008
at 12:32 am EST
"75% of them are states that are clearly left of center from a state gov't prospective."
Actually 100% of them are in states with leftist dominated state government. And you forgot New Orleans which has been controlled by left leaning politicians for decades. Leftist social policy is notorious for neglecting infrastructure in favor of spending publc funds on the latest social program du jour.
With the weird and slightly apocalyptic weather and flooding recently (DC is like 70 right now), I have some disjointed thoughts about conversations that look place after that bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. Here's why:
"This indicates to me there might have been a structural weakness over the years."
I know the Minneapolis bridge collapse had nothing to do with waether, but that event did trigger discussions about state infrastructure, budget priorities, and the status of our bridges, roads, and other engineered structures. Alternet.org (in an article that HB pointed out to me) theorized that fiscal conservatism and a reluctance to invest in infrastructure were at least partly to blame.
Is this a stretch? The article claims that "short sighted public policy" had a hand in a number of events:
A bridge collapse in California the day before Minneapolis, the explosion of an 80-year-old steam pipe in Manhattan a few weeks before, the collapse of a section of tunnel in Boston, and lastly but most importantly, the levee failure in New Orleans.
Classic conservatism values small government and prizes cutbacks in spending. In response to the Nevada flooding, an onsite enginner state that the earthen levees used there were “the least strong and the least expensive” of the various materials used different forms of levee construction.
Thoughts?
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Actually 100% of them are in states with leftist dominated state government. And you forgot New Orleans which has been controlled by left leaning politicians for decades. Leftist social policy is notorious for neglecting infrastructure in favor of spending publc funds on the latest social program du jour.