Not local, but maybe universal
There have been a number of editorials in national newspapers about The Decider’s veto of the S-CHIP program. This one, by Pau Krugman, may be the best. Here’s Dubya on access to health care:
 “I mean, people have access to health care in America,†said Mr. Bush in July. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.â€
This is silly, tin-eared, and out of touch. But not isolated as an example:
Mark Crispin Miller, the author of “The Bush Dyslexicon,†once made a striking observation: all of the famous Bush malapropisms — “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family,†and so on — have involved occasions when Mr. Bush was trying to sound caring and compassionate.
By contrast, Mr. Bush is articulate and even grammatical when he talks about punishing people; that’s when he’s speaking from the heart. The only animation Mr. Bush showed during the flooding of New Orleans was when he declared “zero tolerance of people breaking the law,†even those breaking into abandoned stores in search of the food and water they weren’t getting from his administration.
What’s happening, presumably, is that modern movement conservatism attracts a certain personality type. If you identify with the downtrodden, even a little, you don’t belong. If you think ridicule is an appropriate response to other peoples’ woes, you fit right in.
“Childrens do learn” but Bush doesn’t.
I feel like Dubya’s attitude is, “if you’re poor, why are you getting sick in the first place, and for that matter, why do you exist?”