How did we (the United States) come to this point where our politicians and the highest institutions in the land have come to be viewed by so many Americans with such suspicion, cynicism, and disrespect? By Americans, I am not including the youth of the country, for they do not know any better having been indoctrinated, not educated. Their excuse is that they do not know any better. No, I am speaking about most adults who lead productive lives, working, raising a family, and paying their taxes. These adults have been able to observe and judge the actions of our nation’s leaders at so many levels and have found them wanting over the course of their everyday lives.
While the article does point out a series of faults, the beginning of our disillusionment began earlier, notably in the mid-1960’s, during the Viet Nam war. It did not take long for the average person to see that the two wars being fought, in View Nam and the one on poverty were being managed poorly and were leading to multiple disasters; the hollowing out of our military, the destruction of the Black family, the rise of a bureaucracy which did not have any degree of accountability, the shrinking ability of the middle-class to survive, the ability of politicians to openly lie and their belief in the gullibility of the voter, etc. all started us on the path to what we see today.
The article provides ideas of how we can regain our footing, but each one comes down to the need for the average citizen to hold the press, politicians, educators, and others accountable. It all starts at the grass roots level and can only grow by a day-to-day attention from the voters. I once had a political science professor who had fled to the U.S. during the Hungarian Revolution who wondered why we would expect our leaders to be any better than we were in our everyday lives. I believe it would be nice to at least expect our leaders to be equal to each of us, as it would be a step up. All that we need to do to lift them to our level is to hold them as accountable as each of us tries to be in our everyday lives; we try to live within our means, we don’t treat others as being stupid and gullible and we tell the truth. Is that really so much to expect?
