Grover Norquist, the self-anointed high priest of Republican strategy, before whom all the Republican Congressmen and Senators bow, famously said, "I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." What a Republican wet dream it would be if the United States were to be hit by an epic disaster and to have a government unable to respond on behalf of its citizens.
Roy Zimmerman in his satirical song "Vote Republican" sings "Ooooooo-wooo-ooo Government is the problem. Oooooo -wooo Vote for us and we'll prove it."
Ronald Reagan said the scariest words in the English language were, "I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help." Perhaps under Republicans, yes.
But President Obama is showing how the federal government can mobilize in ways that states can only dream of, and a strong federal government is not only not a threat to the states, but their safety net.
If the Republicans were to seize the levers of power again they would gladly continue the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich, and every future (and possibly frequent) disaster would mirror the pitiful response to Katrina -- except that response wasn't born out of a lack of resources but out of incompetence.
President Obama is demonstrating that yes, we are all in this together, and he is mobilizing the country to respond with donations to the Red Cross, along with mobilizing our other resources.
Meanwhile Mitt Romney is shamelessly airing his false ads in Ohio, hoping to convince us that he is really on our side. He deserves to lose the election in the most humiliating manner possible and disappear from the national scene in disgrace.