April 2010

So once again it would seem the mercurial American public has once again expressed its discontent with Washington, DC (i.e. the Government) as a concept.  And as always it has done so with fervent protest, inane only partially informed arguments, and a variety of surveys that the gainfully employed among us rarely get an opportunity to participate in (not that we’d answer an unfamiliar phone number anyway).  Which brings me to a recent article in the Express (so with a grain of salt we take this) that says that approximately 80 percent (80% = vast majority) of Americans distrust the government.  Now the article posits this phenomenon as ominous and/or problematic, especially for democratic incumbents seeking re-election this fall.  The article also asserts that this particular distrustful condition has given rise to the Tea Party and other like-minded groups who feel there is just too much government “in my business”.   

Now all of this ill-feeling arouses a curious look from me.  It isn’t that I don’t understand distrust of the government in general but I just don’t understand why “we” see this as new somehow.  The forefathers and/or architects of our beloved Constitution asserted the notion that the government should be monitored to ensure that it is acting in the interest of its citizens.  A bit of paranoia resulting from having just eschewed a government you felt was doing quite the opposite.  Hence all this nonsense about the right to have guns, free speech, and public assembly.  All of which, we see as the nifty trappings of a democratic society.

Next there are the arguments for distrust, chief among them being corruptions (bad Government bad).  Once again I think history offers us a little perspective on this.  What was common among those who were both able to vote and those who eventually put their “John Hancocks” as it were on our governing document?  Take a moment…I’ll wait.  Well for a hint just look at the first three letters in your browser after the “/”.  They were Wealthy, White, “With” land, ok so the like “W” is a bit of a stretch but you get the point.  Now think for a second, how many folks do you think fit that description at that time.  Answer, not too many, which leads me to believe that this country has always been “guided” by the few much to the chagrin of the many.

Finally what makes me more suspicious of this “distrust” is its timing.  Now of course I don’t have empirical evidence, partially because my job won’t let me call you randomly at 2 o’clock in the daytime when you aren’t home to ask you questions, but I don’t remember this same level of distrust in the last presidency or even the one preceding it for that matter.  Those presidencies brought us both a perceived bumbler with a gun fetish and a philanderer with a penchant for oval office copulation.  And yet, no raucous chants of distrust en masse.  Now of course throughout both of these presidencies we were high on the hog so to speak, both our coffers and our pantries full.  Now in the wake of a financial nuclear winter “we” find “ourselves” a little vexed and who shall bare the brunt of our discontent but our beloved whooping boy, the Government.  

Levi F. Daniels
Common Sense Advocate

Now I would hope someone reading this would correct me were I wrong but wasn’t the tea party a demonstration of a group of colonists railing against a monarchy that taxed them without offering them any real voice in said government?  So I am a bit perplexed at this “fringe” group of Americans that have named their group after the aforementioned demonstration.  If in fact they really were concerned about whether or not the government is truly beholden to its constituents why not attack special interest contributions or better yet that infernal electoral college?  There’s a practice that has elicited a curious glare from discerning citizens since its creation.  But of course such things are out of the question.  Instead the tea party is much more content to rail against the vile democrats and their evil mission to ensure that more Americans receive at least basic health care than don’t.  Shame on them.  Now, to be sure, this plan, made law on March 23, 2010 will be expensive but how much so, we don’t actually know and we won’t know all of the implications for many years.  Oddly enough we could say the same for another hotly contested piece of legislation, the vaunted Patriot Act.  On the surface, the law was simply a reaction to our precious security being breeched at the onset of the horrendous events of 9/11 but left to its own devices and a little shrewd interpretation, our Wilsonian paranoia might give way to Orwellian surveillance of the entire population.  Think Cointellpro on a much grander scale with much better technology.  Anything from the tea party on that one?  Yep, just as you might’ve guessed, still waiting.  So what’s the point of all this tea party crashing?  Mainly, just venting my general irritation with a stilted binary argument resulting from an inane two party system that doesn’t completely represent the full scope of American life.  

Also hoping someone reading this has an opinion as well…

Levi F. Daniels
Common Sense Advocate