“I DON’T TRUST THE GOVERNMENT”. These angry words can come spouting out of
the mouth of almost every supporter of Donald Trump. Ask them why they feel so strongly about it
and they will tell you about unfair payroll taxes they pay and threats to their
gun ownership. They will tell you the politicians
are spending the “stolen” tax money on wars, or lining their own pockets.
You can try to tell these people the facts about America being
around the average internationally regarding individual tax load or the fact
that we have one of the world’s most liberal range of gun laws and that our constitution makes it nearly
impossible to change that significantly.
You can explain international policy as well as financial laws against
politicians until you are blue in the face.
It does not matter to them. They
know what they know and they hate what they hate and nothing will change their
minds.
The distrust however extends much farther than just
government. It extends to all institutions
that make up modern civilization.
Police, corporations, banks, pharmaceutical companies, scientists and
even science itself are the targets of this wide ranging suspicion and
hate. In short it extends to all facets
of civilization.
When people lose faith in their leadership it inevitably
leads to a breakdown in the effectiveness of the institutions they lead. I fear this what is happening in our
country. Grave questions need to be
answered quickly before real damage is done.
How did we come to this level of distrust and what can we do to restore
it before we reach a point of no return?
The peak of American institutional trust was probably
reached toward the end of the 1950’s.
The end of World War II had made us the worlds manufacturing power. The War had weakened that ability
significantly in Europe and Asia making us the world’s supplier of
everything. America grew rich and
unemployment was low.
As the decades wore on things changed. America and its people had to compete with a
rising world. We all worked harder for a
smaller piece of the pie. As people
began to realize that they weren’t going to live as well as their grandparents
had, they became frustrated. This
frustration was echoed by political pundits and by preachers alike, each looking
to tap the welling anger to forward their own agendas.
The problem is not that any of these institutions are truly
corrupt. They are not. They are flawed as all human endeavors are
flawed. We need to commit ourselves to
the understanding that Government and all the rest of the institutions of our
civilization are not evil. We need to
understand that they do need adjustment and repair. We need to understand that is normal and
good.
This election pits these two viewpoints as nothing else has. One side, the followers of Donald J. Trump
believe that we must burn down the house and start over. The other is the Democratic Party and Hillary
Clinton which believes in repairing things and moving forward. I agree with the latter, but I also know we
must address the fear and anger.
We must find a way to get through to all these people and
dampen their fear and anger. If we don’t
succeed then eventually they may indeed burn down the house and end our
civilization as we know it.
