“Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This is boilerplate American history, and something that Americans — and, in particular, America’s political class — have long taken for granted.
But now things are looking a bit dicey. According to a recent Rasmussen Poll , only 21 percent of American voters believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed. On the other hand, Rasmussen notes, a full 63 percent of the “political class” believe that the government enjoys the consent of the governed.
It’s tempting to stress the disconnect here, and that disconnect is certainly huge. Unsurprisingly, the political class — which talks mostly to itself — thinks that it is far more popular, and legitimate, in the eyes of the country than is in fact the case. In this, as in so many things, America’s political class is out of touch with reality.
But forget the views of America — where, it seems likely, more people believe in alien abductions than in the legitimacy of our rulers — and look just at the more cheerful view of the political class.
Even among the rulers, only 63 percent — triple the fraction of the general populace but still less than two-thirds of the political class — regard the federal government as legitimate by the standards of America’s founding document. The remainder, presumably, are comfortable being tyrants.
I’m guessing that they are not only comfortable with it, they are in favor of it. How many times have you been told that the government is doing this or that for your own good?
Those words should provoke rage. It is not government’s place to dictate what is good for you.
Go read the whole piece. It’s worth your time.
We’re in a rather bad place right now as a nation. We have an utterly out of control government trying to become the dictators of your most personal decisions. We have maniacal spenders throwing money we do not have at problems we would rather they did not try to solve.
It promises to be a rough year, folks.
I just picked up a local news Magazine, and the cover title is “The Emergence, So we survived the Great Recession. Now what?” and I think to myself who said that it was over? As unfortunate as it is this will be a rough year.
Irwin Kellner of the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch is reporting bad news for the economy.
“The fledgling economic recovery appears to be running out of gas.
The fuel for this or any other recovery has to come from the consumer. Purchases of goods and services by people like you and me account for about 70% of gross domestic product, so without our help a recovery could not last too long.
Guess what? This is exactly what seems to be happening. Retailers report that, for the most part, shoppers are few and far between.
The recent run of economic data is most compelling. Just about all of the reports paint a picture of an economy slowing — and sharply, at that.”
He goes on to provide a number of examples to support his analysis, like consumer confidence at a 27 year low.