Yesterday's blog generated a lengthy exchange of commentary between me and the commenter. The commenter asked a very simple question, "If I don’t trust them, who am I going to trust and why would I live here?" The "them" this commenter is referring to is the US Government.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this today, and I asked myself, "am I too extreme here?" As I was thinking about this, I saw the following quote from Patrick Henry, one of the Founding Fathers:
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the Government."
Now, why would a Founding Father say that the people need an instrument to restrain our government if the government is to be trusted?
Later, I was reading "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, and Paine referred to Government as a "necessary evil." Is a necessary evil something you really want to trust implicitly?
And then, finally from George Washington:
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
It certainly sounds to me like the Founding Fathers of our country wanted us to be wary of our government. Further, they gave us the the tools to correct our government when they stray too far from the will of the American people.
But, let's not stop there, let's cite some examples where blind trust of the U.S. Government has gotten us into trouble.
Case #1: After 9/11 George W. Bush had the support of a very large majority of Americans, and we trusted his administration to wage a successful war on terror. What did his administration do? Well, if you listen to President Obama and the democrats, he took that trust and waged an unnecessary and illegal war in Iraq, while sanctioning torture of enemy combatants.
Case #2: During World War II, President Roosevelt ordered the forceful relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps, due to suspicions of spying. Some of these American citizens never got their property back. The American people trusted President Roosevelt to wage the war, and in the process he committed a great crime against American citizens.
So, should we implicitly trust our government? Absolutely not! And I think our Founding Fathers would agree with me on this. That is why they gave us a marvelous document called the Constitution, to clearly spell out what the Federal Government could do, and the proper way to amend that document should it be necessary. They did everything they could to limit the power of our government, because they knew that government was a "necessary evil" that, if allowed, would become a "dangerous servant" and eventually a "fearful master."
I think our representatives are elected to do a job for us, and we should assume that they are going to do that job in a manner that is consistent with the promises they made to get the job. However, we need to verify that they are doing what they said they would do, and if they aren't, we need to correct them. They are our employees and we are paying their salaries. We can send letters, attend town halls, write e-mails and make phone calls, but truthfully, our only real means of correcting them is to vote against them in the next election.
Really, this is no different than the expectations of every one of us who is lucky enough to still have a job in Obama's economy. Our bosses give us goals and measure us against those goals, at least my boss does. And if I'm not meeting those goals we have a little chat, and I'm motivated to meet my goals. Luckily for me, he has other means to correct me besides just firing me. Unfortunately for our elected officials, firing them is really the only option.
Finally, the commenter asked a great question "...who am I going to trust and why would I live here?" Well, I think you would want to live here, because despite its flaws, the U.S. is still the greatest country on earth. Even with the ever increasing government encroachment into our lives, we still have freedoms that citizens in other countries have never known. And, who do you trust? You trust your family. You trust your neighbors. You trust your church. Put your trust in the people around you, they will always be there for you and they will disappoint you far less than some ruling body in Washington.
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3 comments:
Here I go again...I may as well dig my own grave and lay in it.
I think that you are selectively choosing some bad things that government had done, granted there are MANY more that what you put. I would argue that the government has done PLENTY of good things for us too. Am I reading out of context here, but are you looking for government perfection?
I think our difference in opinion here is that I look at our government as are friends and family…because are government is us- it is made up of our friends and family. So if you don’t trust the government, you don’t trust yourself, your friends or your family. Their has to be some degree of trust between all parties involved- or what is the point? We elect our public officials, thus giving them power to govern us.
"A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government;
and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either." Thomas Paine
We need to trust that our elected officials are going to make the correct decisions. Are they going to do everything EXACTELY the way you want? No. That would be impossible because that would mean that we all though in the same way. And we certainly know that is not the case. It’s a ridiculous proposition to think otherwise.
You have to remember, that for every letter you send, they get one for the opposite side of the debate. A government offical is in a lose, lose situation…no matter what, they are bound to tick somebody off. Dose it hurt to send a letter, havens no…send all you want. If you want to feel part of the process go ahead- just don’t expect that it will make all that much of a difference. Yes you are their boss…but so am I…so it the guy down the hall… so is my neighbor, I guarantee all four of us have different opinions about which way this country should go.
One have one boss…maybe a few managers thrown in. But what would happen if you had 320,000 bosses (or more) asking you to do different things? What are you going to choose? Are you going to take a poll for every project you have to do to find out that the majority wants you to do- or are you going to do what you think is best for the company?
Can you vote against your elected official in the next election…sure…just as a majority of the population did in the last elections against the Republicans. Here is the good news…eventually the population is going to get tired of the Democrats in office and vote in the Republicans…then they will get tired of the Republicans and vote in the Democrats. It is the cycle of power that has ebb and flowed in the country since its inception.
I just don’t think is something that needs to be worried about. Throughout American history people have disagreed…and yet we survive, we endure.
MCD
Well, I tried to answer your question. But, I wasn't trying to convince you of anything. I don't believe there is hope that hyou will change. :-)
I thought your question was interesting, I pondered it, and my opinion has not changed.
Thanks for your comments.
Interesting thought on this today. Anonymous cites a Thomas Paine quote in his/her argument. In that same Thomas Paine quote, I find support for my argument:
"All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation."
I would contend that the federal government has usurped many powers from the states that were not granted to it via the constitution. Therefored they gained power in an untrustworthy manner.
Interesting how 2 people can find 2multiple meanings in the same quote.
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