It is election season and, for most Americans, it is no longer something that is celebrated. All the flags, the fireworks and the parades of Independence Day give way to the negative ads, vicious personal attacks and hyperbole. It is unfortunate that in the greatest nation on Earth, we feel so collectively defeated as election day approaches. Our government is polling at historic lows. Our leaders seem more out of touch than at any other time in recent memory. Generations of Americans look back instead of forward, wondering where genuine leadership found its final resting place.
Many modern analysts dismiss our dismay as a simple case of the grass being greener on the other side. They argue that, historically, our leaders have always been self-serving, corrupt, and divisive. I don't think that is the case, but even if it is, our collective discontent with government effectiveness is at least more pronounced now than ever before. Part of the problem is that government is a much larger part of our lives now than it was in the past. Sixty years ago, for example, government was half its current size, reaching only a fraction of our lives. Taxes were as certain as death, but the DMV, EPA, and local ordinance nazis were nothing more than minor inconveniences that rarely, if ever, touched our lives. Most people were free to pursue their daily lives in peace, never burdened by the long reach of government. Regulatory agencies were too small to assault our daily lives, focused instead on curbing the obvious problems.
In today's world one is touched by government from the minute they wake in the morning until they retire for the evening. Then, government watches over us while we sleep, regulating the lightbulbs with which we light our children's rooms, the refrigerators in which we keep their milk, and the temperatures at which we keep their rooms. We walk out a regulated door, and get into a regulated car, to drive down the regulated street to our regulated workplace. We do our regulated jobs, accept our regulated pay and return to our regulated homes in our regulated neighborhoods. Our obsession with promoting the general welfare has supplanted our natural desire to take personal responsibility for our lives and be free.
And therein lies the problem for our incumbent politicians. A government that regulates every aspect of life best do it effectively. If a person demands to take responsibility for your life and then fails to do it well, that person will eventually be held to account. The problem we have as a nation is that rather than refusing to allow the incompetent governess to continue governing our lives, we simply shrug her off for a "more promising governor." We are then disappointed with the result.
Today's politicians have a much more difficult task now than has been historically the case. He or she has taken responsibility for being everything to everybody, knowing that the task is impossible. Enter the language of division. Impossible government necessarily gives way to division, pitting one group against another in an effort to gain maximum reach. The divisions themselves are meaningless. Sometimes it is black against white, sometimes it is rich against poor, sometimes it is some seemingly crucial social issue. In the end, it is just a tool used by the governors to motivate the governed to maintain the status quo.
There are real idealogical divisions in our society, and they can be debated in a passionate, but respectful and measured way. If the divisions are so deep that neither side can be persuaded to change its position, then there is little point to continuing the debate at all. I don't think we are there yet as a nation, but when we succumb to the pitched, vitriolic language of our politicians, we surrender our good judgment to their proven poor judgment. Again, we are then, predictably, disappointed with the result.
I don't think I am naive to believe that most Americans proceed through their day with the best of intentions, serving their God and their families as best they can. We put our pants on the same way in the morning, one leg at a time. We kiss our children the same way, with the same love. We worry about the money the same way, the mortgage, the car payment. We proceed in good faith in our communities, even if we differ on the best way to achieve our common goals. The language of division cuts these common threads that keep our families, neighborhoods, communities and our nation together. The language of division conceals the truth; that we are, in fact, more similar than we are different. The language of division, and those who seek to capitalize on it, should be rejected in favor of honest debate, even if we do not ultimately agree on the outcome. Only then can we really begin to rebuild confidence in our government - and in each other.
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