COMMENTARY: We the people are the problem

Every four years America renews its belief in a personal Savior instead of where it should be, in the individuals who make up the nation. They do this by electing or re-electing the President of the United States to what has become, in the modern era, a throne. Unfortunately, reality sets in soon after the inaugural ball hangover wears off and they realize that in spite of the all the hoopla they have the same intractable problems they always had. That’s because — paraphrasing the Bard — the fault, fellow citizens, is not in our stars, but in ourselves; we the people are the problem.

Four years from now, no matter who gets the job, we will be as unhappy with government as we are today. But we will console ourselves by saying, “if the other person had won, it would have been worse” or pile on the blame by saying “I told you so” depending on our personal outlook.

The one thing the major party candidates had in common this year was that neither asked the nation’s citizens to do anything beyond vote for them; it’s the “I” tactic; I can fix this and I can fix that.  The candidates do not even ask themselves why all the previous presidents have failed to fix things if it was so easy; maybe the problems are un-fixable given the restraining parameters — If so they will never admit it.

When we could do things, we had to make choices. The old joke was you can have it good, fast or cheap — pick two; now the government joke is you can’t have it good or fast or cheap – period. It’s the Micro-Fed Government, one supplier, expensive product, and if it freezes, crashes, or gets hacked that’s too bad; see the fine print in the user agreement. The only thing we promise is to take your hard-earned cash and download endless government “updates” to try and fix the mess we made.

Based in the number and complexity of the laws, rules and regulations, we are the most “governed” nation on earth, why else would we have so many lawyers? Yet we remain convinced, without evidence, that if the newly-elected Savior would just tweak this law here or that tax rate there everything would be fine. The truth is we’ve built the biggest water balloon in the universe, push it in here and it pops out, unpredictably, somewhere else.

A realistic view is that the majority of Americans have simply become a unique DNA-like double helix of special interests they value above all else. “What’s good for me is good for the nation,” is the mantra for those who believe they should be first in line for everything and they are more than willing to give the nation over to anyone who agrees.

They often sooth their conscience by dressing it all up as doing good, but don’t you believe it. This presidential campaign season has produced one indisputable fact, the major party candidates and their primary minions were out for themselves and so, in the end, were most of the electorate no matter who won. They have effectively brought us down to their tiny size, so now it’s a perfect fit.