A Brief History of Government-Bashing
Over at Slate's "Big Sort" blog, Bill Bishop provides a brief history of the collapse of faith in government in America. It's not a pretty picture, but at least we're not alone. Bishop notes that growing lack of trust in government is an international phenomenon:
Journalists have blamed this "crisis in confidence" on a "crisis in competence." Who could expect a public to trust a government that had brought us Vietnam, Watergate, WMDs, and, now, a multibillion-dollar financial implosion? Government got what it deserved.
The trouble with that argument is that it ignores the scope of the problem. At the same time Americans lost confidence in their government, so did the English. And the Aussies, French, Italians, Japanese, and Germans. The decline in confidence wasn't something special to the United States, a homegrown product of our politicians' failures. It was common to all industrialized countries. The lack of trust is a function of modern prosperity.
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Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy.
The most of the problems you mention are the products of the people who hate government.
Viet was bi partisan. Both sides politicians failed to be honest with the American people. Both sides used our military like a world police force.
The Wall Street meltdown is the product of the adored "private sector."
Wise Old Owl Posted Monday, September 29, 2008 10:54 AMLets just worry about our government here in the United States. Maybe the citizens of other countries have their reasons for distrusting their governments. But, it is not necessarily accurate to lump all them all together it seems like an attempt to dampen the seriousness of our problem.
One of the reasons for the decline of our economy is that we have spent too much time and resources focusing on the problems in other countries and not enough dealing with our own domestic issues. Now, we have a big mess to fix and it starts with getting the fat out of our government. Our priorities must change or our economy will fail completely.
Robert M. Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008 6:53 AM