Ronald Reagan said that government was the problem. That is a remarkable thing to say. Government is the way we do things together. To despise government is to reject our common life.
When we reject our life together, we are not really proposing to live in isolation. There only a handful of horseless cowboys who want to live in a school bus in the woods in Idaho or Alaska. It is probably a good solution: cowboy and rusty school bus numbers fairly match. The rest of us want roads and schools and running water. We want good health care at the best possible prices. We want national parks and fish in the lakes. We want safe food. We need to help each other when the river floods, and when tornadoes destroy the town.
Left alone, Exxon would earn twice as much as it does now, and Bernie Madoff would set up even grander Ponzi schemes. Want to buy a miracle drug made from bees' knees, or one that will rot your liver?
So why do so many people say they hate government, or do not trust it? If we step back from the stupid stuff-the absurd and ignorant stuff--it is plain that the trench warfare we have settled into, shooting at each other from our mud-filled ditches, getting nowhere, means we have no agreement about the kind of nation we want to be.
And why don't we know that? Why are we hunkered down, sniping at each other, getting nothing done? Because what we used to be isn't working. It's not even there. The steel mills are gone. The Japanese and Koreans make fine cars. Millions of middle-aged people are looking for jobs that won't ever come back. We might not be able to retire. Millions of people don't have health care, and those who do can scarcely afford it. The insurance companies are very happy about that. Without government there would be fewer cod and more oil in the oceans.
What we used to count on isn't there, and we don't know what is going to happen. So we dig trenches.
Instead of arguing about public or private schools, or whether any child ought to be tested and left behind, we should debate about what kind of education we should be providing to build the nation we need.
Instead of arming ourselves and howling about illegal immigration--or even legal immigration, we should talk about the human skills we need for agriculture, science, research, and business.
Instead of blowing steam about requiring someone's grandmother to learn English, or be sent back to Guatemala or Viet Nam, we should be discussing which languages we should learn, and teach our children, in order to further our won global interests.
Instead of singing hymns about how bad taxes and death are, we should figure out a fair method for allocating the costs of what we want our nation to be, and become.
Instead of debating about whether or when to leave Iraq or Afghanistan, we should be getting our heads straight about when, if ever, or reluctantly, we ought to be going to war.
Hating government, while running for office, while demanding the health care and the pension it provides, ought to be a clue. There must be someone who can recall hearing about trench warfare in World War I; the war we thought ought to be the war to end all wars.
There must be someone who can see, and say, where we ought to go; what we ought to become.
When we reject our life together, we are not really proposing to live in isolation. There only a handful of horseless cowboys who want to live in a school bus in the woods in Idaho or Alaska. It is probably a good solution: cowboy and rusty school bus numbers fairly match. The rest of us want roads and schools and running water. We want good health care at the best possible prices. We want national parks and fish in the lakes. We want safe food. We need to help each other when the river floods, and when tornadoes destroy the town.
Left alone, Exxon would earn twice as much as it does now, and Bernie Madoff would set up even grander Ponzi schemes. Want to buy a miracle drug made from bees' knees, or one that will rot your liver?
So why do so many people say they hate government, or do not trust it? If we step back from the stupid stuff-the absurd and ignorant stuff--it is plain that the trench warfare we have settled into, shooting at each other from our mud-filled ditches, getting nowhere, means we have no agreement about the kind of nation we want to be.
And why don't we know that? Why are we hunkered down, sniping at each other, getting nothing done? Because what we used to be isn't working. It's not even there. The steel mills are gone. The Japanese and Koreans make fine cars. Millions of middle-aged people are looking for jobs that won't ever come back. We might not be able to retire. Millions of people don't have health care, and those who do can scarcely afford it. The insurance companies are very happy about that. Without government there would be fewer cod and more oil in the oceans.
What we used to count on isn't there, and we don't know what is going to happen. So we dig trenches.
Instead of arguing about public or private schools, or whether any child ought to be tested and left behind, we should debate about what kind of education we should be providing to build the nation we need.
Instead of arming ourselves and howling about illegal immigration--or even legal immigration, we should talk about the human skills we need for agriculture, science, research, and business.
Instead of blowing steam about requiring someone's grandmother to learn English, or be sent back to Guatemala or Viet Nam, we should be discussing which languages we should learn, and teach our children, in order to further our won global interests.
Instead of singing hymns about how bad taxes and death are, we should figure out a fair method for allocating the costs of what we want our nation to be, and become.
Instead of debating about whether or when to leave Iraq or Afghanistan, we should be getting our heads straight about when, if ever, or reluctantly, we ought to be going to war.
Hating government, while running for office, while demanding the health care and the pension it provides, ought to be a clue. There must be someone who can recall hearing about trench warfare in World War I; the war we thought ought to be the war to end all wars.
There must be someone who can see, and say, where we ought to go; what we ought to become.
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