The reason New Orleans slid so quickly from civilization into Third World conditions was that it was pretty much a Third World city already, and didn’t have too far to go.

Bet you don’t hear that on CBS.? Noemie Emery at The Weekly Standard offers a provocative comparison of two big port cities on the Gulf, and decides New Orleans was already primed for the cultural meltdown playing out this week.

In its violence, in its corruption, in its reliance on ambience and tourism as its critical industry, in its one-party rule, in its model of graftocracy built on a depressed and crime-ridden underclass that was largely kept out of the sight and the mind of vacationing revelers, it was much more like a Caribbean resort than a normal American city. Its crime and murder rates were way above national averages, its corruption level astounding. The latter was written off as being picturesque and perversely adorable, until it suddenly wasn’t …