I’ve grown cynical, believing no matter what leaders we elect, things will keep getting worse for most Americans as the wealthy use government to redistribute our wealth and freedom to themselves at an ever-increasing rate.
But we once had liberal and progressive leaders from both parties who used government to expand economic security and personal freedom, materially improving the lives of Americans: Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson. They all did so over forceful opposition from powerful conservative forces.
Then Reagan popularized the self-fulfilling belief that “government is the problem.” The American people have largely bought Reagan’s great lie, and we now only expect from our government waste, corruption and impoverishment. As long as that’s what we expect, that’s what we’ll get.
Once, we did expect more of our government of, by, and for the people. We demanded leaders make the government work for us, not against us. We must again expect that our governement will do us good and not harm. We must again demand that our leaders expect the same. Until we do, we will continue to see our wealth and freedom siphoned off by a wealthy and powerful few.