Why Americans distrust their government, part 1

Dear Friends,

I try to read David Brooks' column in The New York Times even though I seldom agree with him.  He is a thoughtful conservative that is fairly consistent in his views.  Mr. Brooks' column a couple days ago (here) was entitled "The Story of an Angry Voter" contains Mr. Brooks' view of why Americans distrust their government.  Here are a couple of paragraphs:

For Ben, right and wrong is contained in the relationship between effort and reward. If people do not work but get rewarded, that’s wrong. If people work and do not get rewarded, that’s wrong. But Ben believed that America is fundamentally a just society. He loved his country because people who work hard can usually overcome whatever unfairness is thrust in their way.
But when Ben looked at Washington, he saw a political system that undermined the relationship between effort and reward. People in Washington spent money they didn’t have. They just borrowed it from the Chinese. People in Washington taxed those with responsible homes to bail out people who’d bought homes they couldn’t afford.
People in Congress were caught up in a spoils system in which money was taken from those who worked and given to those with connections. Money was taken from those who produced and used to bail out the reckless, who were supposedly too big to fail.

In some ways I agree with Mr. Brooks' assessment, but he slants in a conservative way whereas I would be inclined to slant it in a liberal way.  Essentially though it is easy for the American people to look at what the government does and see that it is not fair.  It was not fair to bail out Wall Street that made lots of money while being reckless and then when they lost their bets, the government bails them out.  That is not fair. 

It was necessary to bail out Wall Street to protect the economy from falling into a terrible depression.  The problem is that when Wall Street was bailed out, the government failed to take all the profits.  In a free market the party that brings the money that saves the day owns the business.  For some reason the Republicans who were in charge when the bailout occurred just gave the money to Wall Street.  So the bailout could have been fair, but it was poorly executed. 

So it is reasonable for the American people to distrust their government when it gives money to really rich people to bail them out of reckless bets that they made that they lost.  If you keep the profits, you need to take the losses.  If you take the losses, you should get the profits.  That is obvious to all so when the government acts otherwise, the people will not trust it.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal