From zealotry to zealotry in record time

The Republican band plays on. The venue may constantly change, but they insist on playing the one song in their repertoire. From Salon:

Titled "From Tragedy to Triumph: Principled Solutions for Rebuilding Lives and Communities," the Heritage Foundation manifesto is a laundry list that reiterates every fevered hope of a ruling class that has suffered for far too long under the weight of onerous regulations and IRS savagery. New Orleans and the neighboring regions should be declared "Opportunity Zones" where the following recommendations can be followed: Suspend the minimum wage! Suspend environmental regulations! Repeal the death tax! Support school vouchers! "Repeal or waive" any Clean Air Act regulations that might get in the way of refinery building or highway repair. Allow more drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve!

(No joke: The Heritage Foundation believes that necessary steps to rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are to allow drilling in Alaska and support school vouchers. If nothing else, you have to give these guys credit for chutzpah.)

Now, there's something to be said for mobilizing all available resources to rebuild a ravaged region, and if that means getting a little casual with bureaucratic red tape, that's probably not too high a price to pay. But the Heritage Foundation's recommendations are so insultingly self-serving that they put the immediate lie to any notion that the actual well-being of the locals is the think tank's real concern. Instead, its interest, which for all intents and purposes is synonymous with the goals of the current administration, is the same as it has always been, to serve the greed of the few at the expense of the many.