American Pie: Government Of Some People, By Some People
"I believe that ordinary folk would like to feel that the best interests of their nation are being competently managed; that its resources are being used wisely, and that its fiscal policies are in responsible, trustworthy hands. Also that, as citizens, their safety is in good hands. In the USA, this is clearly not the case..'' writes John Merchant in this bleak assessment of the current state of the American body politic.
My title parodies the phrase from the US constitution, “Government of the people by the people,” and reflects my feelings about the US Government today. My guess is that if you asked US citizens, and those of almost any country in the world, if they feel well governed, the answer would be a resounding “No.”
This is not to say that the citizens of every country are unhappy with the way their government is taking care of business; in some it’s a matter of it being the lesser of two evils, the alternative being anarchy.
But I believe that ordinary folk would like to feel that the best interests of their nation are being competently managed; that its resources are being used wisely, and that its fiscal policies are in responsible, trustworthy hands. Also that, as citizens, their safety is in good hands.
In the USA, this is clearly not the case, and has given cause and encouragement to extremist political groups. Such groups as the “Tea Party,” a radical group within the Republican Party, would not exist or have a voice were it not for frustration at the State of the Union.
The current economic crisis is not the fault of US citizens, or of Wall Street, or the banking community, or party politics; or venality in the housing market, it is the result of bad government that allows unethical practices.
Administrations of both political persuasions come and go. They can shift policies according to their ideologies while they are in office, but they do so with guidance and information from a civil service that serves all political stripes.
Thus, preemptive wars have been fought needlessly at a cost of billions and billions of dollars. Foreign aid has been splashed around unwisely to corrupt governments without achieving its declared intention of preserving the security of the US.
Untold billions were spent on a defense program that was predicated on an attack from a crumbling communist ideology, and a manned space program, rooted more in comic book science than productive exploration, has leached further billions from the Nation’s coffers. The civil service continues to bloat, placing even more strain on the economy
Meanwhile, the Country is unable to appropriate adequate funds to deal with its natural disasters, or the health of the nation, or pollution, or an outdated infrastructure, or education; least of all its cultural wellbeing. Public transportation, desperately needed for intra and intercity travel, is at the bottom of the appropriations list.
American manufacturing industries, the backbone of a stable economy, have bled away to countries that in the past we have despised, notably the Asia/Pacific region, by taxation policies and tariffs that stifled innovation and encouraged greed; and labor laws that are not globally competitive, despite the lip service given to the benefits of free trade.
We now find ourselves embarrassingly in debt to, of all countries, China. This is not just the balance of trade problem that we’ve lived with for years. The indebtedness reaches deep into the US’s economy. How did that happen? Not by accident for sure, but by governmental incompetence.
Though politicians are the most visible part of government, in the end they are little more than mouthpieces for the civil service, their party, and hopefully their constituents, though the latter is questionable. The real movers and shakers in the business of the Nation are powerful constituencies like the religious right, the lobbyists, the CIA and the National Security Administration.
Faceless and mysterious groups, and wealthy individuals, also pull strings to further their arcane causes, behind benevolent fronts designed to make them appear to the uninitiated as public benefactors. David H. Koch is a prime example. He is a major patron of the arts, but also a funder of conservative and libertarian political causes, including some organizations that fund groups within the American Tea Party movement.
It’s an ironic fact that candidates for heading up the judiciary, education, or any other government department, are carefully selected, vetted, and then grilled by politicians in Congress to determine their qualifications, background and suitability for the job. Whereas, politicians can be voted into office by an uninformed or mis-informed electorate, with only the most cursory check by their own party into their background private life and possible conflicts of interest.
No matter how the current crisis plays out, it’s time to rethink the way the Country’s business is conducted. What we have is plainly not working. America’s place in the world is not a matter of just its power. Its global influence for good or evil is what matters in a world riven by all the evils of unstable societies.
# # #
To read more of John's assessments of life in present-day America please click on
http://www.openwriting.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=john+merchant
And do visit his Web site
http://home.comcast.net/~jwmerchant/site/
