How Can We Fix Our Broken Country?
By Matthew Meiners
There was a time, long before I was born, when honor and trust and integrity were part of the politics of this country; when Presidents were counted on not to lie; when campaigns were respectful; when the press was vigorous; when votes were chased with ideas instead of platitudes and sound-bites; when the government was, to put it plainly, not hated by the governed.
“Hated” may be a strong word, but look at the numbers: Congress and the President have job approvals in the 30’s, The Supreme Court’s impartiality and independence have been repeatedly questioned and threatened, and the nation, in the opinion of the People, has, in the words of a common polling question, gotten off pretty seriously on the “wrong track.”
I’m no expert, but it seems to me that something is terribly wrong in the United States.
Perhaps the time to which I refer never existed, but the values of that (magical, hypothetical) time are the values that the Citizens of this country wish for their elected representatives in government to espouse. The Citizens want honest government. The Citizens want an industrious government. The Citizens of this nation want a government that gives them increasing freedom and responsibility, but that also helps them when they can’t help themselves and no one else will lend a hand; they want a government that keeps them safe, but not safe from themselves; they want a government in which they can trust, and one that will trust them in return; they want a government that has morals, not one that dictates morality; they want good government.
And who can blame them?
Our forebears founded this still young country in what I cannot help believing was the hope that we would take their collective example and continue the great experiment they started, not by ceding our rights through apathy, ambivalence, or fear, but by continually renewing our commitments to liberty and to each other through the expansion of freedom.
One needs only to hear, see, or think the words “war on terror” to conjure a picture of an America of shrinking freedom at home, bad government in Washington, and failure and shame abroad. This is not what Adams, Franklin and Jefferson had in mind as they sat in committee to determine the words that would set the United States free.
We the People were lead to expect more.
But what to do? The “social contract” has been made. The Government is “in charge” and We the People dare not challenge its authority. But though the system with which we cast our lot has betrayed our trust and literally, deliberately frightened us into docility, the “average” American never thinks to challenge the government in any fundamental way at all. The “average” American believes that if he just keeps to himself and votes every two to four years (if at all), his duty as a citizen has been fully discharged. BOY is the “average” American wrong!
But what to do? ACT!
Our duty as citizens is not to meekly accept the dictates of a central government gone mad with power! Our duty is to assert our powers and rights as members of the one and only sovereign body in the United States: the People. We, and our ancestors, are the people who built country, and it is for us that it exists. If we are unhappy with our government, as it seems we are given the approval ratings at the top of this essay, then it is our duty to change the government. Fundamentally. I’m not talking about just handing power from one party to the other... I’m talking about changing the government... really.
Does that sound too radical? It’s not.
The Founders thought about what would happen if the government became repugnant to the governed. They saw in our future a time such as this, and not only did they come up with a solution, they embedded that solution in our Constitution - that quaint antiquity to which our representatives increasingly give only lip service.
The people are given the right to make amendments, to literally mend the faults in our government, or even to call a Second Constitutional Convention. Through the power of our votes and voices we can compel our government to do what we want it to do! We can force honesty, integrity and industry upon those who govern! It’s true! Look it up - it’s all there in black and white, four articles down from the preamble that we were all made to remember in grade school and that we all then later forgot. We have the tools, so why don’t we use them? I cannot begin to answer that last question, but I can say that whatever the reasons, they are insufficient in the face of our current dilemmas.
But what sort of amendment should we demand? Who shall write the words? Should we call a new convention? What exactly is it that we would change? How shall we agree? I do not know, and for me to claim that I do would be the height of arrogance. What I do know is this: these questions can be answered. All that is required is the will to answer them and the determination to see the answers through to a happy issue.
Our nation is broken. I don’t know exactly how... I have an idea, but who knows if I’m right? And even if I am, I don’t know how to fix it. But the reality is that I don’t need to know. I trust in our power as a great People of a great nation to begin this discussion and to come to consensus. We have been made to believe that we are a divided nation, that “blue” and “red” states are engaged in some kind of culture war, but we aren’t. We are the Citizens of what has been called the greatest Republic the world has ever known. How about we start acting the part?
A Rant
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
