Sheldon Richman
Government Is Not “Us”
Mon Jul 5, 2004 20:43
64.140.158.127
Government Is Not “Us”
by Sheldon Richman, June 2, 2004
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0406b.asp
“America is not what’s wrong with the world. I read all this stuff — people
hate us, people don’t like us. The fact of the matter is, people line up to
come into this country every year because it’s better here than other places,
and because they respect the fact that we respect human beings.”
So says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
It could be that those who line up are making a distinction that Rumsfeld
seems unable to make, namely, the distinction between the American people and
the U.S. government. There’s a world of difference between them. Poll after
poll in the Middle East indicates that the public there understands that
difference. While Arabs generally express good feelings toward Americans and
their society (or did until the Abu Ghraib revelations), they express disdain
for U.S. government policy toward their region. This shows a discrimination
that our so-called leaders need to learn.
When Rumsfeld talks about “us,” he blurs a crucial distinction, most likely
intentionally. But a moment’s thought is all it takes to see that we, the
American people, are not the government and vice versa. One example should
suffice: when you rushed to finish your income tax return at the last minute
on April 15, were you in fear of yourself and your fellow Americans or the
IRS?
It won’t do to argue that, since we elect the president and members of
Congress, we are the government. The truth is that once they are in office and
until they are voted out, they are our masters. Don’t be fooled by the
self-serving term “public servant.” Does anyone really believe they serve us?
Sure, they do enough to curry favor with voters and get reelected. But the
rest of the time they pass and enforce decrees telling us what we can and
can’t do with our lives and our property. I wouldn’t call that service.
Rumsfeld is right: lots of people want to come to this country, including
people from the Middle East. But I’m fairly sure it has nothing to do with the
U.S. government’s sorry record in that part of the world. Although the Bush
administration rhapsodizes about democracy in Iraq, the fact is, the U.S.
government has for years sponsored authoritarian, even totalitarian, regimes,
including Saddam Hussein’s, throughout the Middle East. Some of its clients
maintain prisons that are little more than houses of torture. The one
democracy it has supported, Israel, has not exactly displayed the democratic
spirit to the Palestinians driven from their property or living under
occupation.
No, people want to come here because, despite decades of government
regulation, there is still something left of the private life in the United
States. One can generally live where he wants, pursue the career of his choice
(if he gets the right license), raise a family, and enjoy leisure. But the
private life is not as secure as it once was. There was a time when one could
eat and smoke without being hectored by government officials or uplifters with
access to government power. There was a time when one did not worry that his
house would be condemned and given to a real-estate developer because the
planned shopping mall will raise more tax revenues for the local government.
If you go back far enough (the early 20th century) you could even use opiates
or cocaine without fear of arrest and imprisonment. And let’s not forget the
threats to privacy in the name of the “war on terror.”
As for Rumsfeld’s boast that “we respect human beings,” again, it depends on
who “we” are. The government’s record isn’t so good. Ruby Ridge and Waco are
just the most extreme examples of how little the government respects us.
We sing the praises of freedom in the good old United States, but freedom
doesn’t mean what it once meant. It used to mean personal autonomy, and
self-ownership, but now it means little more than the vote. Don’t get me
wrong: picking officeholders by voting is better than picking them by
shooting. But if freedom is identified solely with casting one out of a
hundred million votes for president, the Founding Fathers must be weeping.
Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, author
of Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State, and editor of The
Freeman
http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?sec=iolmisc
magazine. Send him email.
srichman@conwaycorp.net
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APFN Ruby Ridge and Waco
