Reagan's Anti-Government Kool-Aid Has Poisoned Civil Public-Option Dialogue

You've no doubt heard the blustering calls to talk radio shows, both right and left.

A righty know-it-all will snort, "We don't need another government bureaucracy," or, "The government will bungle up health care like it messes up everything else."

Air America host Thom Hartmann had a great rhetorical question recently in reply to one of these indignant GOP all-government-is-bad know-nothings.

"What, your mail isn't being delivered?"

These blowhards have swallowed the Kool-Aid. And Ronald Reagan was the guy who dressed up as a giant pitcher and convinced them do it.

In these days when a public option and government for health insurance seems increasingly likely, misinformed bedrock ideological assumptions by many righties has poured gas on the smoldering, contentious national debate, largely rendering it incivil.

Reagan's now-famous idiotic and simplistic bromides about government are the right's articles of faith in the current health-care debate, to wit:

"Government's not the solution to our problems, it is the problem." And the other I-hate-government Reaganism: The "most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" Those GOP articles of faith, however, probably don't resonate with a whole lot of Katrina victims.

And they don't resonate, either, in most Western democracies, where the government and "bureaucrats" are not seen as worthless. In France, in fact (brace yourselves, righties, here it comes) its public schools' crème de la crème are often selected at an early age to eventually work in government service.

But hatred and mistrust of the government - any government - is now part of the DNA of many conservatives - thanks largely to Reagan, The Great Communicator (of Misinformation.)

One listener to progressive Hartmann's radio show the other day has worked for the federal government for 20 years. She was furious, she said, "at people constantly insulting those of us who work for the government."

Can you blame her?

I lived outside the U.S. for several years, in Canada. Not only do Canadians not hate their government, they actually trust it - well, its employees, at least. Going to a Canadian or provincial government office is, in general, quite a pleasant affair. People are polite - on both sides of the desk.

(It was a bit of a shocker, though, the first time this Americain went into a Quebec DMV office in French-speaking and Catholic Montreal - and saw a crucifix displayed on the wall!).

So, as long as those who are drunk on the Reagan Kool-Aid continue to take cheap and mostly unwarranted shots at our government, civil discourse on health care and many important issues to all of us will continue to be difficult if not impossible. As Rep. Barney Frank said, you can't argue with a table.

Do try to be kind to government employees when you meet them. Their jobs can't be easy - after all, some of the people they deal with are the same right-wing ideologues raised on Reagan and Rush anti-government hate talk.

Follow Bill Mann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/newsmann

Comments

[DoctorH]

Good article, Bill! You are absolutely right. Ever since Raygun, these Right Wingers have zapped the public with their anti-government propaganda, for the purpose of leaving the consumer and the taxpayer totally defenseless against abuse and fraud perpetrated by large corporate Special Interests. Because if the government doesn't have the power to so much regulation of the banks, the health care companies etc., guess who has the power-- the big corporate interests like banks & the health care companies. And guess who gets screwed. The consumer and the taxpayer, of course, while corporate losses get paid for by taxpayers, but the profits get kept and put into multi-million dollar bonus checks for the execs of the banks we taxpayers bailed out, and for the health care companies who are already robbing us blind with high insurance premiums and high drug costs.

Perhaps some day we will be able to impress upon these people the fact that when you are anti-government, you usually end up being a slave to big corporate interests.

[blizb]

I thought all politicians were the government, even Republicans.

If we don't need the Government (anti-government stance) then why do Republicans campaign on fixing it when they are also part of it?

Reagan was a big part of government because being elected for anything means you are elected to govern.

Since the Republicans have become the party of "no" maybe they regret being elected and regret having to GOVERN.

We elect any politician regardless of party to be part of GOVERNING. That is their job, governing in the government, making government policies the American people want in their government.

[LMPE]

Any problems with the government are the results of Reagan's and Bush's policies.

[classicalgeek]

Before Reagan, it was patriotic to believe in the government. I'm old enough to remember it. Just like it was patriotic to pay your taxes, however burdensome.

[Michelle238]

You progressives are a bunch of LOONS! This country was built on captialism and the private sector. People like you on this website are a cancer in this country and you will be weeded out!

[DIdaho]

It was until around 1900. And then people decided that capitalism on its own wasn't worth child labor, 80-hour weeks, company stores and crushing monopolies. Thank Goodness for Republicans (in this case Theodore Roosevelt) for ending much of that.

You don't have to guess what happens with pure capitalism. Just look at its result at the turn of the last century. It's oppression was enough reason for people to walk for seven months risking disease, starvation, attacks from bandits and Indians to find something else for themselves.

Is life under progressives so onerous you'd walk from St. Joseph Missouri to Portland just to escape it?

People will be weeded out, true. But it won't be us.

[bayside]

You only have to look around at the failed experiment of privatizing in our govt. that reagan and bushes did to see a what happens to the people .We are now suffering from their privitizing .When you privatize, profit over people, instead of govt. for the people. you give the greedy ,power hungry corp. license to prey on people at all costs.....

[MThomasNC]

There is 10 to 15 percent of the population that strongly believes what Reagan said about the government - that's the libertarian string of the country that first settled in the mountains during the 17th and 18th centuries. They branched out west stealing land from the native americans as they went along and not trusting anyone but their own. Even then, they were anti-government. Today many of these descendants live mostly in rural communities and towns across the country. They are part of the republican party, raising it's ugly head in the form of 'tea baggers''. The tea baggers are sponsored by corporations that want to kill Obama's agenda. What better crowd for the corporations to have out there shouting about anti-government after they caused the economic melting after being bailed out by the tax-payers (government) after knowing that they will get regulated again than these anti-government 10 per centers. Where were the 10 per centers doing the Bush years. They were home minding their own business. They didn't care that BushCo made two wars, over rode the constitution and lied to make war, further deregulated corporations so their cronies could steal us blind. Now that corporations want to stay in control, they need these 10 per centers to parade around yelling about cutting taxes, deregulation, socialist, leave my medicare along, etc.
It's a sham sponsored by corporations. Reagan was a sham, too.

[timothyi]

I'm a government employee, working at the NIH (I'm on my lunch hour!). Over a 40-year career I've worked in the private and public sector, as an employee and as a business owner. I have NEVER worked with more dedicated, harder-working people than I work with now. Most of them could easily have secured higher-paying jobs in the private sector but opted for public service instead.

The Bush years were difficult, because we knew we were working for an administration that had no appreciation for its employees or what we were trying to do. Morale took a big jump last November.

Thank you for the kind words.

[anachoret]

Great article.

I trust the US mail more than I trust Wall St. and the Banks.

[EbonBear]

I have a theory that the reason the US government is so often ineffective (apart from the legal bribery of campaign financing) is because so many potentially gifted public servants are talked out of running for office by the cavalcade of anti-government rhetoric. Who knows how many talented public servants never even entertained the idea of running for office because they were always told that government was the enemy.

Incidently, I don't think Reagan is exclusively to blame. Rather, the anti-government rhetoric of the Populist movement seemed to stick around the South and become combined with the anti-government hatred of the Reconstruction period to create an inculated hatred of all forms of government in that area. When population growth shifted power in the electoral college to the South, that form of government­-opposed-t­o-governin­g became the norm. Even Clinton indulged in it.

[3fingerbrown]

I'd say that most reasonable people of either party would agree with Tom Paine's assessment that government is at best a necessary evil. The difference is that Democrats dwell on "necessary" while Republicans can't get past the word "evil."

Put me in the "necessary" side of the aisle. Yeah, I know, government regulation creates red tape, makes the machine grind slowly, and can cut into profits. But Reagan's gleeful demolition of federal oversight and regulations, deemed necessary since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, is the direct cause of many of the messes we now find ourselves in.

[seawolf77]

Yeah those same guys are the ones that went running tp the government with their hat in hand. They are such hypocrites I can;t stand to be in the same room with them.

[silk olive]

Good points. The far right is against regulation of any kind. And what's unfortunate is that we have not only the top 1% against regulation so they can rob us blind, but all those libertarian and just plain ignorant righties adamantly arguing against their own best interests. It is unbelieveable, in the face of the economic and environment disasters we face that people still cling to the sinking, failed policies that Reagan dumped on the American people.

[mike bosworth]

From what I remember of my American history, distrust of government is extremely American, not exclusive to Republicans. You could make a decent argument that our country was founded on the principle of distrusting government. In my own experience I would say that one side of the table in our country *always* appeals to distrust of government, the only variable being which side of the table and the issue. At any rate, distrust of government is a tradition here that long preceded Reagan and occurs on both sides. It's as much a part of the American past-time as the Horatio Alger myth.

[silk olive]

isn't the whole point of a democracy to be able to weed out those that we mistrust? must we continue to wield widespread paranoia of our elected officials in a way atypical to the rest of the developed world? i realize we are still in a teenage (or even infantile?) phase of national evolution, but king george (the original) is no longer calling the shots and we, at least for now, still have the power to vote.

[Neal Jansons]

Why does this distrust of government never apply to war? Why is the only thing the Right seems to think the government is infallible at is deciding who and how to kill? Why is it anytime is time to obey the military industrial complex to question the government is treason, yet anytime the American people actually want something out of their government, then suddenly it's all about distrusting authority?

America was formed as rebellion against illegitimate government by divine right to rule. It was supposed to be replaced with democracy, where government is simply that thing citizens do cooperatively for their own benefit. What is this magic by which we are "We the People" one minute and "evil government" the next?

[Openeyes]

You’re missing some pretty significant distinctions. The founders feared the power of men in government, that men would not be able to control themselves in the exercise of government power, thus a balance of power in the government was needed, and the power of government itself needed to be clearly delineated. But that is completely distinct from the Republican concept that government is inherently evil and inherently useless. The founders would have dismissed both of those concepts out of hand. The whole point of the Revolutionary War was to separate the colonies from England so a new government could be established – they didn’t go to war to support something evil and useless.

Nor is there a long standing tradition of distrust of the government. Look back only as far as the 40s and 50s to see how much the culture has change. The “G-men” were revered as heroes back then. “Government scientist” had enormous cachet. Foreign service with the state department was nearly elitist, and drew heavily from Ivy League schools. There was still a healthy skepticism about government and no one thought government was perfect.

However, everyone accepted the necessity and utility of government. Republicans completely reject that premise today, and it’s a relatively recent development, traceable to Reagan.

[Rooster54]

Thanks for this post, Mr. Mann. I'm pretty tired of the "government is the root of all evil" B.S. myself. I don't think the right WANTS government to work, because if it does, it means democracy works, and they don't want democracy, they want plutocracy and/or theocracy.

[research]

Yes, this is a CORE issue, progressives must reframe the debates.

Add to Rayguns poisonous anti democracy rhetoric,

We elected Conservatives, who then showed us just how bad a CORRUPT governmnet can be.

We must outlaw all Contributions as the Bribery they are.

Equal free prime time and a travel allowance for all candidates on the ballot.

Then we might get our Democracy back.