Thoughts from David Harsanyi. The less trust we have in government, particularly the federal government, the better off we’ll be, so the latest polls are good news for those of us who want to restore it to constitutional principles. Barack Obama, with all of his lies, is doing the nation a favor. As are those who repeat the lies in his service.
[Update a couple minutes later]
“I don’t promote government failure — I expect it.” It’s certainly the way to bet.
When government fails, people like Dinauer and, well, the government claim it’s a sign that we need more government. It’s not that government did a poor job, or is a poor mechanism for addressing that particular problem, it’s that there just wasn’t enough government. Of course, the same people will point to what they call government success as, also, a good argument for more government.
To paraphrase Einstein, “One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome.”
Considering its bloody history* and general rapaciousnes, I tend to believe people who trust it must be to some extent delusional, uninformed and/or extremely naive.
It’s like some big gang that has caused enormous devastation in other towns has come to our town and asks that we hand it over to them–along with our guns , the key to the town treasury, and the combinations to all the safes in all the banks. And yet our town’s self-styled “intellectual elites” say, “Sure, why not? I don’t foresee any problems.”
*Jim Powell, in the foreword of his inspiring TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY, cites a political scientist who estimates that in the 20th Century alone, the State murdered at least 150 million people, and possibly as many as 350 million. That’s not counting war dead; that’s just people shot, starved, etc., by their own governments.
I’d quibble over prefixes WRT your headline, Rand. “Mistrust” refers to trust inappropriately placed — as in, 53% of voters in 2008 mistrusted Obama, and now they’re starting to realize it.
I’d say the word you’re looking for here is “distrust.”
Aside from major scandals like Watergate, public distrust in government tracks the state of the economy. The only way it’s going to stay this high is if the economy fails to recover.
The only way it’s going to stay this high is if the economy fails to recover.
Given the current policies, that’s the way to bet.
Ever heard of the Stockholm Syndrome?
I certainly have, Titus. Chris Gerrib and Jim are good examples of it. In fact, I wrote to that “Coffee Party” group suggesting that they use as their slogan, “Because not everyone who has the Stockholm Syndrome is Swedish.” I’m disappointed they never responded.
Bilwick1,
Were they around long enough to?
Chris L.
Has the Coffee Party disbanded already? I knew they were exposed as an Obamunist Front but I hadn’t read they were gone. Too bad. I was looking forward to ridiculing them. I had some pretty good coffee enema jokes stored up.
Bilwicki1,
They seem to have disappeared below the radar in any case. I haven’t seen anything in the MSM about them in a while, so I assumed that the consensus on the Left was that it wasn’t a tactic worth pursuing. If they haven’t disbanded yet, it is only a matter of time.