Cybrpnk's Rantings

For years we have been hearing conservative critics of American government deride the civil service; portray government itself as a force for bad; and promise a world with less government. This message has been accompanied by pledges to reduce taxes whenever possible, and a persistent reckless unwillingness to level with the American people about what 'less government' looks like. Instead we have been treated to absurdities like 'it's not the government's money, it's your money.' Although it should be noted that this absurdity was true with the tax cuts: most of the money given as a gift to the ultra-rich was money that working Americans had been paying in to Social Security to ensure income after retirement. This may indeed match the Conservative vision, but this reverse Robin Hood behavior seems to be all that government would be capable of if it were indeed, as Grover Norquist desires. "small enough to drown in a bathtub." Well Grover, we've found your bathtub. It's what we got when we poured a whole lot of Lake Pontchartrain water through a broken levee and into the City of New Orleans. And, Grover, bad news. It appears that what is getting drowned is your radical, mean-spirited vision of a return to the Hobbesian uncertainty of the 18th, or perhaps 17th, century.

It turns out that, when push comes to shove, Americans actually want, nay expect, their government to be around to help out. We expect it to be efficient, swift, and effective. Actually, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Polls have been showing for years that most Americans, given the choice between better schools and lower taxes, choose better schools. Given the choice between accessible medical care and lower taxes, choose medical care. Given the choice between safety and lower taxes, choose safety. The conservatives have been very effective at not only selling people on lower taxes, even though the benefit has gone primarily to the wealthy, but they have also obscured the reality of how much we were giving up to make up for those taxes. They have gambled that people wouldn't ever figure out that when they were saying less government, it wasn't just less government for 'them.' it was less government for 'us.' They have been pushing the idea that we can have lower taxes, less government, and still remain true to our country's core values. Then Katrina happened.

When the American people started seeing the shocking scenes of people being left to die; of a city descending into chaos, an American city decaying into Chaos, they were outraged. These images exploded the cognitive dissonance which the conservatives have relied on to push their agenda. These images were too close to what we associate with third-world government. With poverty. With corruption. With incompetence. All of a sudden it wasn't them, somewhere on the far side of the world. It was us, staring into a mirror. And we did not like what we saw. Now is the time to question how we have allowed ourselves as a people to be so horribly gulled for so many years. To ask how we have let ourselves go so far astray. We have gone from a society that values the individual to a society that values only the flow of capital. We have seen what they mean by 'less government' and we are not amused. Mr. Norquist, your bath is ready.