What Would it Take to Change America?

Lately I’ve been asking myself something.  What would it take to give control of the government back to the people?  What would have to happen before the vice-like grip of wealthy corporations would once again give way to the voice of the people?  Don’t get me wrong; I’m not anti-government, but like many Americans, I DO think that our government works more for the interests of corporations and party self-interest than the middle and lower classes.  So what would have to happen to change that so they’re doing what’s best for US again?

I think that trying to come up with specific strategies is the wrong way to go.  We need to ask a more general question.  We need to settle on what would have to happen to change the way Washington works.

The thing is, after thinking about it for a while, I think I know the answer but it’s nothing new.  One answer is national ballot initiatives.  America should at least be a Deliberative Democracy, because I’m not sure we can say we’re a Representative Democracy anymore.  As I’ve said before, many people in America don’t feel the government represents them anymore.  Maybe we should represent ourselves once in a while.  Let the whole country vote on a few things once every two or four years.  There’s actually a movement to make this happen, which I encourage you all to support.  Please visit http://ni4d.us/ to learn how you can support a national ballot initiative system.

Another thing that needs to happen to return power to the people is campaign finance reform.  I can’t stress this enough.  Nothing else gets done until CFR is fixed.  All those issues you care about – health care, taxes, defense, jobs, gay rights, whatever – none of that gets fixed until CFR is changed.  We need public financing for all our elections.  What we have now is a system of legalized bribery.  As long as corporations are considered people and money is considered speech (two things which ALSO need to change) it follows that the voice of the people will always be drowned out by the megaphone of Wall Street.

Incidentally, I’m not sure if this is really a game-changer or not, but I think we need to do away with electronic voting, too.  I don’t care how much easier it makes things, it also makes hacking and election theft easier.  Go back to paper and stay there.

Pardon me for being partisan, here, but another thing I think would have to happen is that we would have to change the minds of those who think that corporations SHOULD run the government.  Anti-government people seem to think that blood-thirsty, carnivorous business men SHOULD decide what’s best for them, for no reason I'll ever understand.  To do this, we would have to restore their faith in government, but I don’t think anything short of an act of God could accomplish that.  They’ve been so conditioned to fear government they can’t see that private industry can be as bad or worse.

The problem with these ideas is that -except for that last one -they have to go through Congress to be enacted and Congress damn sure isn’t going to pass anything that’s seriously going to upset the status quo.  How do we fix Congress when Congress has to approve of any solution we come up with?  There really isn’t a system for changing the way things are done that doesn’t depend on the people who can make the necessary changes going against their own interests.  There isn’t really a voice for the people if we want any radical changes made.  How do we get around the federal government to enact the changes we want?  Most of us don’t approve of the way things are done in Washington, but how do we change that?  They’re not gonna do it for us.

Please note that I am not now, nor would I ever, advocate a violent overthrow of the government.  I think a citizen uprising that involves the use of deadly force is, at the very least, to be avoided.  It’s not that I can’t imagine a situation where it might be called for, but for one thing, I think you lose at least some legitimacy by resorting to violence.  I don’t think the majority of the country is gonna back you up if you storm the halls of Congress with rifles in hand.  Second, I don’t think it would work anyway.  All the militia men in America couldn’t seize control of the federal government if they wanted to.  The federal government is better armed and better organized.  I don’t think a militia would be any match for them.  Just wanted to put that out there lest anybody accuse me of inciting anything.

So what do YOU think?  What would have to happen to return power to the people and cut the strings of Wall Street?  It’s clear that what we need are drastic changes and not the baby-step, piece-meal changes we usually get, but what would it take to make those changes happen?  Again, don’t think specific strategies.  First figure out what would have to happen for us to regain power.  Think of it like this; “For the American people to regain power over the federal government, A, B, and C would have to happen.”

Lemme know what you think, America.

Government is Not the Enemy

Conservatives like to point to problems with government-run programs – like problems with Medicaid or Social Security or the Cash-for-Clunkers program – as proof that the government can’t be trusted to get things done. They ignore the successes the government has to it’s credit and focus only on the failures because the less people trust the government to do something, the more they turn to the private sector and the richer the corporate interests get. Notice that the government is perfectly capable of running those parts of the government that conservatives support, like the military and the socialized healthcare program that veterans and hypocritical, small-government, Republican congressmen enjoy. They’re just somehow “incapable” of running those systems that could allow millionaires to become billionaires.  Voters forget that the private sector can be as bad or worse than the government.  The private sector is motivated by profit and many companies will happily give you low-quality service or products if it’ll increase their profit margins. I also don’t wanna hear anything about how some government programs are losing money from the party that likes nothing more than to cut taxes and give what little money we have left to people who already have more than they’ll ever need.

Here’s the thing, though. Part of the reason why the government fails when it does is that conservatives don’t support the government.  Think about it.  Say you’re a conservative Congressman; you don’t believe in “big government” and don’t support government programs.  When it comes time to support government programs by giving them funding or helping them fulfill their roles in society, how likely are you to vote in their favor?  Not very likely, I’d guess.  You’re probably going to vote against them every chance you get, aren’t you?  How can conservatives expect government programs to run smoothly when they themselves are constantly trying to undermine those programs at very step?  The G.O.P like to throw up every roadblock they can so they can say “See?  You can’t trust the government to do anything.”  It’s like taking the tires off your car and then complaining that it doesn’t run very well on the rims.

I support my government MUCH more than I support the private sector when it comes to running essential systems in society that corporations are PLAINLY to greedy to be trusted with. Maybe the government could do a better job of running the country if half of them weren’t trying to convince people they can’t.  In Europe, people don’t complain about “big government” they way we do in America because they know that their governments will take care of them when they’re down.  They have a  higher standard of living maintained by tax-payer funded, government run services.

The point is, “Big government” is not an inherently bad thing.  It’s only a bad thing when said government is actively trying to oppress the citizens (or when it places the desires of the wealthy above the needs of everyone else, like ours, but if that’s your complaint, why vote Republican?).  Big government can be a GOOD thing when that government is benevolent and does its best to meet our needs.  Maybe if we’d give it a chance, it could do that.