More and more, lately, I hear about the government not doing things right, no longer being for the people, etc. The government is no longer a term that can include all the issues that confront us as being handled by a single entity. The government is like a multi-headed monster with all the parts of good and evil fighting themselves. The sad part is, in our culture, the one with the most money has begun winning all the arguments, just as drug cartels have more power and ammunition than police in most countries.
What exactly is our government? Is it the corporations which buy lobbyists and power and can squelch progress that takes profits from them? Is it the many think-tank Institutes who give so much advice? Is it the trash collectors who have the control to put big cities on their knees if they choose to stop working? Is it the Administrative, Legislative and Judicial triad? Is it the many bureaus who scarcely speak to one another like the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, or is it to be found in the alphabetized list of Bureaus you get if you click here?
It was citizens, not yet elected officials as such, who helped set up our government. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,[1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Yet, just as the Bible was a great book when it was first written, the Constitution no longer is clear to the average person. Great scholars are required to interpret what the Founders were thinking, just as clergy is needed to try to interpret the Bible. Why cannot we write something that is no longer obsolete for our present society?.
We need to bring our country up to date with its understanding of the way the 'government' really works and just how each citizen can see him or her self as having a role in it. There are choices for all of us. In medicine we insist that doctors allow patients informed choices. Our present government, through media, disallows informed choices. Each party is free to promise and lie as ably as the snake oil salesmen of a century ago.
If the legislative branch members were in Washington to try to represent their constituents rather than lining their own pockets and securing re-election and benefits they do not deserve, while criticizing corporations for their too generous bonuses. Now there is a true picture of hypocrisy at is finest hour.
Isn't it time we started thinking about what works and not just voting for 'change' by putting in total incompetent, greedy, inadequate self-serving representatives? Where are our 'grass roots' advocates? Are they all too busy putting out the fires to find the cause of those fires?
1 comment:
You've right that the "alphabet soup" of government bureaucracies, with their often vague and overlapping missions, are beyond the comprehension of our average citizen. But the constitution is not to blame for this. Unlike 98% of the current bills before congress, the constitution is written in a clear, precise language. If congress had limited themselves to the powers enumerated in the constitution, the government would be more manageable and more accessible.
Our present government certainly have many serious flaws, but disallowing informed choices is not one of them. It is now easier to be an informed citizen than in any other time in human history. Using the internet, one can get a cornucopia of information on a current issue, including the stand of each legislator or candidate on the issue, commentary on the issue from every part of the political spectrum, and viewpoints from every section of the globe. This wealth of information is available even to those without an internet connection, since internet access is available through internet cafes and public libraries (provided by our government)!
So if it is so easy to be informed, why do we have so many ignorant citizens? The reason has more to do with a lack of desire than a lack of availability. See "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies" by Bryan Caplan for an excellent explanation of the causes of voter apathy.
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