'The Things We Choose To Do Together'
(By Jim Geraghty, National Review Online) - Massachusetts Governor: Deval Patrick, last night:
While the phrase may sound good to Frank and laid off Hallmark card copywriters, it's meaningless and stupid. Apparently the things we choose to do together include IRS audits, seizing privately-held land under Kelo v. City of New London, building Bridges to Nowhere, giving subsidies to sugar producers and foreign aid to the Egyptian government, bans on the use of private land because endangered species may be present at times, and the line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Having said that, it's nice to see Patrick, Frank, and the Democrats recognizing that the Iraq War, the interrogation of detainees, eavesdropping on suspected terrorists, research and development on advanced weapons systems, and capital punishment are "things we do together."
"This is the kind of leadership [Obama] offers to bring to the presidency — not because government can solve every problem in everybody's life; but because 'government,' as Barney Frank likes to say, is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together."
While the phrase may sound good to Frank and laid off Hallmark card copywriters, it's meaningless and stupid. Apparently the things we choose to do together include IRS audits, seizing privately-held land under Kelo v. City of New London, building Bridges to Nowhere, giving subsidies to sugar producers and foreign aid to the Egyptian government, bans on the use of private land because endangered species may be present at times, and the line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Having said that, it's nice to see Patrick, Frank, and the Democrats recognizing that the Iraq War, the interrogation of detainees, eavesdropping on suspected terrorists, research and development on advanced weapons systems, and capital punishment are "things we do together."
posted by BP News Bureau | 12:06 PM
1 Comments:
I just saw this while Googling for definitions of government, and I'm a little confused by Geraghty's commentary.
The United States has an innovative form of government, called democracy -- as Abraham Lincoln put it: a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. For better or worse, all the things Gehraghty mentions are precisely things that we have chosen to do together.
Those things have happened because together we reached a consensus that they should. Our consensus is that we should audit tax cheats. Our consensus also supported the invasion of Iraq. It was our votes that chose the public servants who would carry out these actions, and it was our participation that allowed or encouraged them to take action. Right or wrong, the buck stops with us.
If you assume that the American government is a body of, by, and for the American people, then your unhappiness with those issues is unhappiness with the choices we have all made and for which we are all responsible. Of course, if our government is not such a body, then we need to change our democratic system so that it is once again of, by, and for the people. At which point government will, once again, be the name we give to the things we choose to do together.
We all share a responsibility for good government. We should all be ashamed when we act together as citizens to make bad choices. And we should all work together as citizens to make better choices in the future.
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