Here is the heart of Chuck's argument:
To considerable extent, thanks to governmental oversight and involvement, enforcement and teaching, success has been achieved. Klan lynchings no longer routinely blot the American South; schools and employment must be open to all; the races live together in greater familiarity and harmony than ever before in American history. This is not to deny that much remains undone, or that the threat of racist recrudescence is past. But we must still acknowledge that we have made enormous forward strides and that without the resources of government such progress would have been unthinkable.
So much more can still be credited to government's good works. The silent spring Rachel Carson so painfully evoked, an eerie landscape emptied of songbirds by deadly pesticides, helped ignite an environmental movement that led to the creation of a regulatory regime that cleaned up the toxic pollutants all around us. American rivers no longer catch fire, as the Cuyahoga did in 1969; dozens of Americans no longer die in smog-induced temperature inversions, as happened at Donora, Pa., in 1948. At the state level, public university systems, such as in Wisconsin and California, charged no or only nominal tuition, educating a generation and building the human capital American society so desperately needed to sustain and replicate itself.
But all of this now seems as quaint as dirigibles or horse-drawn buggies. We no longer quest after greatness. Rather, we inhabit a petty, crankish, small-minded world, in which politics is dominated by grievance and resentment. Republicans have had thirty years to make perfect this message -- We demand lower taxes! What has government ever done for you? It merely gives those other people, those slackers, something for nothing! Shrink government and drown it in the bathtub!
I see his point. My own experience, of course, taught me something different-- in criminal law, more government at times has been the problem. Over-criminalization is a real thing, and a dangerous one.
What do you think
I often reflect on memories shared, mostly treasured ones, of my parent’s generation. They were more blessed than cursed to have come of age during and after the ‘Great War,’ mindful of the sacrifices asked of them, grateful for the contributions and sacrifices of others and humbled by the ultimate sacrifice paid by too many.
ReplyDeleteTheir ‘Ties that Bound,’ ushered in the era of awareness and achievement Mr. Reid spoke of – birthing a middle class ‘Golden Age’ that transformed the world. A time past, where more crimson sunsets than stormy nights were enjoyed and children’s dream world visions expanded, while paths to attainment soon followed.
‘Lay-a-way’ commitment nurtured evolution and expansion of manufacturing’s military achievements offering opportunity, job growth and security for millions of Ozzie and Harriet’s. A national vision during Ike’s administration combined with business’s new markets helped launch billboard and radio images into visually exciting new color print and onto television screens – A promise of the ‘good life’ soon fueled by an expedient path of attainment, credit and the instant gratification that often defined. Ushered in was a middle class participation where neighborhoods enveloped community, communities the state, states the nation as our nation’s borders became the springboard to the world.
Success shared, as educational opportunities provided skills required, infra-structure provided and expanded connectivity, resource exploration and management provided the raw materials transformed, management and employee agreements complimented each other, birthing a secure quality of life more universally enjoyed – increased work and safety standards, an expanded fire-life safety’s reach, a safety net framework for those in need, employer provided health care access, pension possibilities and the list goes on… Government was business and society’s partner. Shared responsibility and benefits, what was not to like?
How have we become a nation where the instinct to extend one’s hand without question has, all too frequently, become a mantra of, “me first?” Can government, business or citizenry alone, stem the degradation and retreat from the values and institutions built for, given and entrusted to us?
The path chosen by the few leads to walls erected to protect, while excluding the many – the many excluded who will ultimately come together to survive – and the process will begin anew.
Families without common blood lines fostered, neighborhoods once more affirming to nurture and support, communities evolving to promote a larger common good with sights set on a renewal of state’s rights for all – all inching closer to the secure, gated enclaves of the privileged few…
Who would ever have envisioned such an epitaph for what was so proudly bequeathed to us by the ‘Greatest Generation’!
Life offers many choices, some much more important than others. Each of our choices make a difference, in our life and the lives of others. How will we choose?
My answer is yes, government works. As long as it runs as a public institution public-spirited and civic minded, to quote Prof. Reid. Government still runs a few good programs even though for the last two decades the most costly public undertaking has been exporting American democracy in war format. The problem I see is the political trend to run the government as a business. Given the rule of no morals only expediency applies to both politics and business, it still doesn't warrant the American government being run as an investment firm at a time when investment firms are run as casinos by CEOs that live in parallel realities fueled by fumes of greed, power and control. Thank God and the Founding Fathers of the American government for having made our country idiot/CEO-proof. Let the politicians promise all they want…to have anything done they need the Legislature and the Legislature hasn’t done squat for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteMark; You have a desire that we have criminal law that is just,fair and strong. Criminal law is only in the public sector. It needs attention and correction. I don't think it is a size problem, as in "too big".
ReplyDeleteThe problem with government isn't all about size, it is about who it is serving. Dad
I have, on occasion, stood in front of a mirror wondering what it is about my worldview that drives me so instinctively to occupy the middle ground in political debates. I am fairly conservative on some issues, moderate or liberal on others. I grew up in a religiously conservative community ("tea party" is not pejorative there) and attended a conservative university but my law school if left leaning with mostly liberal faculty and students. I agree with people in both places. I disagree with people in both places. I feel comfortable in both places. This may sound like and idealogical contradiction, but the issue raised here is a perfect example why I think the way I do.
ReplyDeleteSo, does the government work? It seems to me that the intuitive answer here is yes and no. We have a federal system that can simultaneously advance slavery and freedom, Jim Crow and civil rights, gender-based pay disparities and Title VII, spending, tax cuts, debt, deficits, war, and peace. Our government compels and restores human dignity while degrading and devaluing human life. We have a government that builds the roads and bridges that take us places, except the ones that are crumbling or simply take us nowhere. We can justify ousting Gaddafi but leave Syrian civilians to fend for themselves.
Political ideologies are often generalized by saying that liberals are pro government and conservatives are anti government. While I'm not sure how accurate that is when you boil it down, I am sure that folks who subscribe to those generalizations are wrong. Our government is not inherently good, nor is it inherently evil. Simply put, it is an instrument of the people--as it should be--and as such it suffers from human frailty just as it triumphs from human strength. Our government is merely a reflection of us. Taking the long view, the federal government, alongside the governments of the states and local municipalities, has generally served to make us better off. But its just a tool, it is not the operator.
In my view, discourse on the question of government's value is inherently limited and it can distract us from the other side of the social contract. At a certain point, it's like arguing over whether a shovel is good or bad, or whether it works or it doesn't. You can either use a shovel to dig a life giving water well or you can murder someone--eventually you realize that its function and value depend on who has the shovel.
This isn't a pessimistic view at all. Indeed, when I look at people I see more good than evil and more love than hate. But I fear that if we continue further down this course where we think of government as an entity distinct from the people we risk losing sight of our own responsibility in the business of government. The government will work as long as we work together, and I think we work together a lot more than political candidates would have us believe. E pluribus unum.
CTL - Very refreshing!!!
ReplyDeleteSolitude and the discernment often accompanied is a blessing we embrace too infrequently - though a solitary existence, often a curse that leads to ruin.
You are correct, government (and society) can work again "...as long as we work together,..."
Thank you!