We have been hearing so much about the Tea Party Movement, which hates government, wants the government out of their lives, and feels overtaxed, despite the fact that taxes are the lowest they have been on the national level for 60 years!
Even those not allied with the Tea Party Movement seem to complain about government, and consider it not worthy of their trust.
And yet, whenever there is a problem, people look to their government! Government is necessary, and government is essential, but try to tell that to ignorant, emotional citizens who seem to think government IS the problem, a view promoted by Ronald Reagan and other Republicans for the past thirty years, as that party, in control of the Presidency for all that time except the eight years of Bill Clinton, and of Congress for twelve years, added tremendously to the national debt!
With all of that anger toward government, much of it totally irrational, now a Washington Post poll finds two thirds of those polled want MORE government regulation of the financial sector, just in time for the debate now beginning on regulation of that area of the economy!
And yet, so many people in polls complain that the government intervened to prevent what could have been a second Great Depression, in the Fall of 2008 under George W. Bush, and the Winter and Spring of 2009 under Barack Obama.
So what gives here? It is clear that a vast majority of Americans are acting like children in a temper tantrum! They want what they want from their “parents”, but yet resent their “parents” intervening! They also want what they individually want, but do not dare to care about other people!
This is selfishness, narrow mindedness, and greed–the ME attitude so well professed by Republicans and conservatives since the time of Ronald Reagan! They brought about this economic mess we are in, but when Barack Obama is trying to reform the system, the answer is to call him a Socialist and every other ridiculous libelous name, and yet also call for government intervention, which could very well be called Socialism, although it is NOT that!
Can the American people get their act straight, stop complaining, face the fact that we need government, and it is time to reject the naysayers who love to divide the American people and only promote what is best for the elite, not giving a damn for most of us?
In other words, let us not promote socialism, which is not what Barack Obama is attempting to do, but a new Progressive Era, where the government is of, by and for the people, instead of the corporations and the wealthy!
I agree that we need government…and nobody in the world is saying that we don’t. Everyone is willing to pay taxes for things that matter, like roads, education, and a standing military. What’s problematic is when the government takes over making decisions for us that we should be entitled to make ourselves. For example, if I choose to give my non-working neighbor a little money, that’s my choice. But the government doesn’t allow me to choose not to do that. If I get tired of paying for people to sit on their butts while I work, and would rather invest that money in savings or a new business or a college fund for my kids, I still do not have the option of not supporting those folks. That’s wrong.
Perhaps you could argue that taxes are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years (which I would argue was thanks to Bush–what happens when his cuts expire and the health care penalties go into effect?). But it was a mere 100 years ago when the Senate refused to put a 10% cap on the total of ALL taxes a citizen would pay–because they were afraid that such a cap would cause taxes to RISE to that extreme level. I’d like to go back to that mindset.
Bringing out the whole “corporate greed” straw man doesn’t work, either. When companies prosper, the economy prospers. It’s almost impossible to start a business in this country, the taxes are so prohibitive, but who do you think it is that creates jobs? The lower corporate taxes are, the more money they have for jobs and benefits. Don’t make corporations out to be the bad guys, Prof–there sure wouldn’t be much money in academia without them and their voluminous donations. And there wouldn’t be anywhere for your former students to work when they finally got out from under your influence and into the real world.