Government is having a hard time these days. Our lack of trust in government has eroded our faith in institutions and more importantly, our faith in each other. To recover, we need only remember that the government isn’t the enemy, its us.
US democracy has fallen victim to coordinated attacks on the checks and balances that provide balance in our system. Big-money, nasty-media, undoing of long-standing rules and the stirring of political divisions are all part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy designed to favor more profits for big business. The attacks are working. People are losing security and the system is tilted to favor the mega-rich.
We’re angry at a corrupt system and that is justified. The question is whether we should destroy our current system before we have any idea of what comes next?
I’m pretty sure we won’t fix our ailing democracy by giving control to those who designed the coordinated attacks that sickened it. Those who redefine truth, attack patriots as scoundrels and undermine the rule of law and the freedom of the press are no friends to democracy. We need to say that and vote against it if we believe in the promise of America. Government is supposed to be ‘of, by and for the people’.
To salvage a broken system we must elect people to represent us who believe in our ability to turn this messy period of our history into a time of greater opportunity for our citizens.
I am one of those people.