On Government

I have often argued that government is the way in which we (the people) come together to solve our mutual problems. And I still believe that; however, government in that sense in our country has completely failed. Government as people coming together requires education and participation so that the people have an understanding of what their mutual problems are and try to find the best solutions. People in the US have largely ceased educating themselves and participation has fallen to ridiculous lows. So the result is that very wealthy people get elected to office by a small percentage of the population and these “representatives” take over “government” in their own interests and the interests of those who pay their way. In the US, government is an oligarchy that has little to do with what we like to call “the common good.”

Liberal democrats, like myself, continue to vote for candidates who, they think, will support the common good. Conservative republicans seem to vote in multiple paths that are not always logically consistent. One group seems to support “moral values” although they seem to have in mind merely a very limited number of issues such as abortion and gay/lesbian lifestyles while ignoring core principles of Christian faith. Another group seems merely interested in “law and order” and added to that a fear of world-wide terrorism. Yet a third group seems only concerned with the “free market” which translates into taxation and business regulation. The reality of this, it seems to me, is that both groups — Republicans and Democrats — believe in certain policies that politicians are expert at using to their advantage. The resulting government really fails to satisfy any of these goals.

What all of this seems to have brought us down to is a national movement that hates the Federal government and would prefer to just retreat into state-run societies. Having grown up in Illinois, I can’t say that I have much faith in state government. One might think this is just a resurgence of the Civil War but the movement is far larger than just a North/South matter. One might also think that it is a resurgence of the Articles of Confederation and anti-Federalism from the 1780s but few are well schooled in the Federalist Papers and other arguments with regard to the Articles. The only power of the Federal government that people seem happy about is defense, which may be why they are willing to pay almost half of their income taxes directly to the military.

The sad aspect of this movement to undermine Federal government and to inflate state governments is the loss of any “national character.” But perhaps a national character was an illusion sheltered by naive people like myself. Perhaps we have been ignoring the large differences in character that are evident as we travel around the country. What is happening right now is a backlash of those differences against a nationally motivated attempt to secure a common character.