Americans Distrust the Government

Dear Friends,

The recent primary elections made it clear that Americans really do not like the government.  A recent Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute poll (here) indicates that

A large majority of Minnesotans lack trust in the federal government and more than half would prefer a smaller government with fewer services

But that doesn't mean that Minnesotans like the tea party movement.  

But the poll shows while tea partiers might be the most vocal, more Minnesotans oppose the tea party movement than support it.
While 20 percent said they support the tea party movement, 26 percent oppose it. Fifty percent said the tea party does not reflect the views of most Americans. The poll also shows that independent voters, who often decide elections, are less likely to cast ballots for tea party candidates.

At first I was surprised by this lack of trust in the government, but upon reflection I can now think of lots of reasons why people do not trust the government.  We barely survived eight years where President George W. Bush etal tried to prove that government was ineffective and incompetent.  Republicans cause the government to be ineffective so that they can eliminate government. 

It seems to me that some of the distrust of the current government is a reaction to the change in the power structure that would permit a black man with the name of Barack Hussein Obama to be the President of the United States, but part of problem is the fault of the Obama Administration and the career politicians and their corporate sponsors.

There is no question in my mind that President Obama can change this distrust of government and should be held accountable if he doesn't reverse this trend.  He campaigned on a message of hope and change, but he has permitted himself to become a part of the Washington establishment dominated by money and politicians that are more concerned about maintaining the current power structure and their individual jobs than they are doing what is right for the people of the United States and the world.

Tonight at the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights awards dinner, the main award was given to Dr. Azar Nafisi, a human rights advocate in Iran and now in the United States.  In her remarks, she talked about Huck Finn and his dilemma of either turning Jim in as a runaway slave or going to hell.  At first he was going to turn Jim in but he decided that he would rather go to hell and do the right thing than avoid hell but do the wrong thing.  Dr. Nafisi spoke of Washington's pragmatism of avoiding Darfur, not talking to the Dali Lama, and not speaking out against and aggressively working against other human rights violations to doing the wrong thing to avoid hell.  What President Obama should do is determine what the right thing to do is even if it means going to hell. 

President Obama has allowed himself and his administration to give the American public reason to distrust the government.  If a candidate that engaged the electorate and sold them on a message of hope and change ends up acting just like President George W. Bush and the career politicians, why should anybody trust the government?

I intend over the next few days to provide a number of examples of things that the Obama Administration has done lately that would cause Americans to distrust their government.  Please feel free to add to my list.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal