A while after leaving Canada and returning to the United States, I enrolled in state college and majored in political science. One of the first questions that arose in class was, “what makes a legitimate government?” I had long thought about this during the terms of Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon. It’s still a basic axiom that governments remain legitimate only so long as they rule with the consent of the governed. The people give that consent (it does not have to be verbally acknowledged or recognized; it can be tacit consent, i.e. doing nothing to oppose the government’s policies) as long as they at least have some belief that there are relatively fair elections and through our elected representatives we have some voice in the laws that are made and the policies being carried out. At least that’s the theory in America. If you’re living under a blatant military dictatorship another set of principles apply.
Posts tagged as “lobbyists”
It boggles my mind how the tea baggers can get it so wrong.
I think most Tea Party folks probably trace their ancestry back to Europe. Most probably they imagine they originally hail from England, since once upon a time Merry Olde was considered to be our “mother country.”
When Clinton accepted the Democrats’ nomination in 1992, he promised the party faithful that getting health care for all U.S. citizens would be his number one priority. He gave the impression that he’d come up with a plan and if that got knocked down by the evil doctors and Republicans he’d come up with another plan, and if that got knocked down he’d come up with yet another plan until it was a done deal.
He wouldn’t rest until the United States had a health care system in place that was on par with the rest of the developed world. If necessary, he would twist every congressperson’s arm or do battle with any lobbyist or special interest group, including the all powerful AMA. If elected, we could sleep well in the knowledge that before he left the White House, Americans from rich to poor would have equal access to health care.
Obama can’t succeed. No matter how clear his vision, he can’t overcome the corruption that’s been woven into the fabric of politics in America.
We’ve legitimized corruption. We’ve legalized it and given it constitutional protection. In the United States, identifying the true sources of governmental corruption is a treasonous act, for corruption is now built-in to the bricks and mortar of our system of government. To identify corruption here is to identify our governments, both local and federal. To call for corruption’s end is a call to bring down these governments, for governmental corruption is now such a cancer that it seemingly can’t be removed from our legal institutions without dismantling the government.