OpenLeft: When They Say Government They Mean You

[marmar]

When They Say Government They Mean You
by: DaveJ

Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 12:30


I'd like to talk about government. The conservative/corporate propaganda machine has turned "government" into a bad word. Conservatives portray our government as some kind of enemy of the public. We have all heard the scare stories about the harm done by meddlesome regulations from intrusive big government programs run by government bureaucrats.

Let's step back from reacting to the word as we hear it today and think about what the word really means.

In America government is us. It is, by definition, "We, The People." Our Constitution is the defining document of our government and it couldn't be clearer, declaring that We, the People formed this country "to promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves"... In other words, watch out for and take care of each other; "We, the People" have banded together to watch out for each other, take care of each other and build institutions to protect and empower each other.

With this in mind let's try an experiment. Try substituting some variation of the words, "We, the People," "us" or "the people making decisions for ourselves" every time you read or use the word "government." Or use the word "our" instead of "the" when you say "the government." Our government, us, we, the people, working together to take care of and empower each other. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.openleft.com/diary/14284/when-they-say-government-they-mean-you

[Echo In Light]

1. We have a rate of de-politicization that makes dictators the world over salivate

[Political Heretic]

2. That's the stupidest bunch of tripe I've ever read.

I'm sick of his rhetorical nonsense about how "we have the power." All one has to do is take a look around to see that "the people" have long ago stopped being "government."

This touchy freely pieces where we all hold hands and sing "we are the world" are kiss-the-whip pieces encouraging us to keep "working harder" and "fighting" within the political system, reminding us to feel like "we" control it.

We don't control it. Government is not "us." Government are the paid and controlled representatives of the privileged elite. Money buys elections. Period. You think "we the people" are the government, why don't YOU run for President next year and see what happens. Or just see what happens to the candidates who best represent the interests of the majority working class America - someone like Dennis Kucinich for example. He's laughed off the stage every year and will never be president.

Modern government is "the shadow cast over society by big business." Politicians are funding by corporations, lobbyists spend billions of dollars a year to control what happens in government and make sure that it stays within the spectrum of what is deemed "acceptable difference" by the privileged and powerful.

When we start sucking down all this flowery talk we minimize the cold, ugly reality that modern government is an enemy of the people. It seeks to exploit, and use up working class Americans while stripping them of benefits and cutting entitlements wherever possible.

We all "get" that the Constitution has a lot of nice language about "we the people" being government, but the founders went out of their way to make sure that popular Democracy would be kept in place, less the people get out of control and the power of rich, white land owners be seriously threatened. That's why a system was designed that slows down change, puts layer upon layer of barriers between the people and passing legislation, that's why there's a Senate, and on and on.

We need to stop talking about how "we the people" are the government and start talking about how "we the people" can oppose a government that does not represent us.