The Baby and the Bathwater

By J-Ro


The Republican party has managed to pull off an amazing feat of marketing genius. Despite running the country for 28 of the last 40 years, they have managed to erode public trust in our government, the same government that they are an integral part of. According to a Pew Research poll, the clear majority of Americans trust the government “only sometimes,” and I have more than a few friends who say that they don’t trust the government to handle anything. Most Americans seem to be open to the concept of throwing our system of government out all together, or at least not trusting it with anything important. People have become so jaded, in fact, that they fail to blame the real culprits behind bad government: bad leaders.


The basic argument behind this mistrust is deeply flawed. What are you distrusting when you say you don’t trust the government? The American government, at all levels, boils down to a government by the people. We vote for officials at the local, state, and federal levels who will represent us in the halls of power throughout this country. Short of a direct democracy, our representative government is about as close as you can get to actually controlling the state yourself. We the people, as voters and citizens, are literally only one step removed from those in power.

If you don’t trust the government, you either don’t trust yourself, you don’t trust those people who you elected, or you don’t trust the system as a whole. If you don’t trust yourself to lead America, then democracy and small government clearly isn’t the answer. Perhaps monarchies or dictatorships, which inherently assume that the people can’t be trusted to govern themselves, would be better. You can downsize, cut, and be as hands-off as you want, as Republicans like to do, but if you don’t trust yourself and your fellow citizens enough to lead, you will ultimately still have problems with governmental control. Now, if you don’t trust the people who you have elected, then there is no one to blame but yourself. If you vote, then you have made your voice heard, and if you don’t believe in the will of the majority, then that puts you in the monarchist camp, as explained above. If you do not vote, you have even less right to complain or distrust. It is interesting to note that in the 2006 midterm elections, only 41% of citizens voted. Yet, in a poll taken last month, 60% of Americans disapproved of the job Congress was doing. Sure, nobody has to vote, but if you don’t you have little right to complain or to be taken seriously. If you don’t trust the government, yet you do nothing about it, your argument holds no weight. Lastly, if you don’t trust the system in general, but you take no revolutionary action to change the system, your complaints again are going to fall on deaf ears.

Because so few people vote, and because third party options enjoy such low support in America, the right-wing theme of government mistrust is nothing more than a marketing ploy. In fact, some of the worst episodes of government abuse have occurred under Republican watch. Watergate, the War on Drugs, Iran-Contra, and the awful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are all episodes in our history that I’m sure caused many people to lose faith in our system. All of these were perpetrated by Republicans. For nearly half a century, leaders from the GOP have been elected using anti-state sentiment and promises of “smaller government.” Once in office, they erode the public’s trust in the system even further by leading poorly, turning their failures into a rallying cry for future Republican candidates. Just because Republicans, and the current administration in particular, have made a mockery of good governance is not a reason to distrust the entire system, as occams hatchet so eloquently points out:

The logic that holds that we should not use impeachment because the Republics made such a mockery of it would hold that we should never use FEMA again, because Republics have made such a mockery of it, or that we should never trust federal prosecutors again, because Republics have made such a mockery of them, or that we should never believe anything NASA says, because Republics have made such a mockery of it. Hell, by that logic, we should abandon the institutions of religion and marriage, since Republics have made such a mockery of those. Okay, how’s this one:

We should never hold elections again, because Republics have made such a mockery of them.
>>>>>snip

http://www.theseminal.com/2007/07/12/the-baby-and-the-bathwater/
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Just thought I would share for our consideration
we need to push for impeachment to hold them accountable.

because I suspect that the ones who would vote are being cut out of the system for being First Nations, poor, black, hispanic or otherwise not socially acceptable.

Fix the vote system first. Everyone who is a citizen should be able to vote, and they shouldn't have to jump through hoops to vote or to have it counted.

Then come back with the rant.

No arguments that the voting situation needs to be improved, but I think you are missing
the point telling me to come back and rant when it is fixed. I like to rant now.
I like the authors point on what the republicans have done destroying the public's trust
in institutions.

I was merely pointing out that first things have to be first!

How's that for combining Government with Religion?

Holiday = Holy Day, for those that didn't get it on the first parse.


No excuse for not voting.

On voting day, Reubs are pretty sure of how they're going to cast their ballot.

Either they vote Repub because they've always voted that way or because their dad always did.

Or because the candidate made some pleasant noises about 'lower taxes' or 'securing our border', they made what they thought was the right choice, never ONCE investigating what the candidate's OTHER views were.

How did they feel about the minimum wage issue?. What should be done about the war? Who has the answer about the budget? Is the party really responsive to the "little guy"?

It's about time that conservative voters realize that they're voting against their own interests if they vote Republican.

If they did just a tiny bit of research, they'd realize that the track record of Republicans is horrible on all the issues that REALLY matter.

REAL issues are the ones that DIRECTLY affect them.

Not Stem Cell research. Not abortion. Not prayer in schools. Not guns laws. Not flag burning.

I just can't see why they vote to hurt themselves in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Homeland security just said that can't do their job.


Or do they do what they are suppose to do is frighten the republic?

Intelligence should never be politicalized,
but they do it on purpose and promote a Emmanuel Goldstein of our age.

Now THAT's a slogan for the Republican Party.

I guess, I am just talking about my year with the CIA when I was a janitor
at the same time the plumbers were contracting the work on watergate.



"Intelligence should never be politicized" now I need a road trip to the Creation Museum!!!!

"Tired of intelligence, knowledge and 2000 years of progressive civilization? Well, come on down to the Creation Museum! (Free balloons for the kiddies!)"