Revolutionary ideas

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

By Richard Anderson

Of all the ideas that have come out of the United States of America since the Declaration of Independence, probably the most profound one is the idea that government gets its power from the people.

The people choose who will represent them. By staying in touch with their representatives, the people indicate which services they would like the government to provide and what role they would like the government to play in domestic and foreign affairs. And if and when the people catch wind of corruption or incompetence, they have the right to boot the offending boobs out of office.

That’s a revolutionary idea that was nearly unheard of in 18th century Europe, and it’s an idea that is worth promoting, though I myself would rather see it done quietly and by example, rather than by carpet bombing. I also think we should start promoting this crazy idea is right here, in the land of its birth.

When I first moved out West, I encountered all sorts of people who thought the federal government – and even the state government, for that matter – was an evil cabal whose ultimate goal was to strip us of all our rights and pillage the resources held in public trust.

I dismissed them as conspiracy theorists who had taken too many drugs during the ’60s. Fresh from my parents’ nest and the cozy, sheltering womb of a liberal arts college, I couldn’t bring myself to believe that government and its many ancillaries, auxiliaries and associates would hold any interest above the welfare of its constituents. That was downright perverse to my 20-something mind.

Well, we all start out innocent and at some point in our lives are forced to swallow the bitter pill of reality. At some point it became glaringly clear to me that, high-minded ideals aside, government is made up of people and that people – individuals, plain old folks from down the lane – have weaknesses and faults, get power hungry and lust for wealth. Maybe some of them are downright evil. I prefer to believe they are simply fallible, like you or me. But maybe that’s just lingering naivety.

On the other hand, the complement of the power-mad elite is the opiated masses, numbed by the media or religion or corporate mesmerists or refined sugar. It would be nice and easy if what our leaders told us were true – that we’re either with them or with the terrorists, that taking our cans and newspaper to the recycling center and paying a bit more for a product with the word “green” on it is enough to avoid climate catastrophe, that there are significant differences between the motives and goals of Democrats and Republicans, that the vice president is really a part of the executive branch and the legislative and yet also neither – but we know better, don’t we?

And if we know better, we have the duty and the responsibility to protest it, to demand change, to boot the boobs out.
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