'People of Paradox': Government Distrust Takes a Dark -- and Contradictory -- Turn
Posted:
04/3/10
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"Always love your country -- but never trust your government."

That admonition about America comes from the late columnist and commentator Robert D. Novak, and he liked to repeat those words as a charge to graduating students contemplating their futures as citizens.

Yet, since his death last August, that message has morphed into something else. Now the phrase "never trust" approaches a baser and more frightening emotion: hate. Listen to higher-decibel talk radio or watch some of the angriest demonstrations, and you witness rage on a level beyond mistrust or suspicion.
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Indeed, you're able to identify a love/hate relationship that's propelling a portion of our politics and creating a principal paradox of our civic life. Flag-waving patriotism co-exists with virulent abhorrence of the governmental institutions responsible for the nation's conduct at home and abroad.

What's fascinating, though, is that this political paradox is just one of many, perplexing anyone trying to make sense of American public life.

Last summer, as the health-care debate got hotter and town-hall meetings more explosive, President Obama told one crowd about a woman who had written him with a personal request. According to the president, she said, "I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare."

That same sentiment could be heard across the land, making the discussion more confused -- and confusing -- for representatives of any viewpoint and the citizenry at large.

Then, of course, there's the related and more encompassing conundrum: the detestation of taxes at any governmental level at the same time that there's a fervent desire for services provided by those same governmental bodies. How do you square such circles when taxpayers are complaining about ballooning deficits and the dangers of future debt?

Trapped in the vagaries of the public's dissonant thinking are members of the U.S. House, the elected national representatives closest to voters. In the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, a grand total of 17 percent of the respondents approved "the job that Congress is doing." A stunning 77 percent -- better than three-quarters -- disapproved.

However, in rating the member of Congress in the respondent's own district, the opinion changes dramatically, with the largest number, 45 percent, registering approval and 41 percent noting disapproval. This contradictory trend -- disapproval of the institution simultaneously with approval of the individual member -- is a principal reason for the historically high re-election rate for House members: nearly 96 percent in 2008. Will the midterms of 2010 really prove to be that much different?

For the rest of the story.....

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/03/people-of-paradox-distrust-of-government-takes-a-dark-and/



Considering that government hatred is taught at home generation to generation especially in the south, there is really no hope of it ever being a legitimate complaint. The adults of today in the south, not all but most, repeat the same rhetoric they were taught as children and their parents have done the same.

So how can we get a legitimate gauge of how our government is doing if some folks are just taught to hate it and taxes no matter what?

These boards are full of the taught government haters and some of them are not in the south but most of them are.

The hatred of the government in the south actually roots all the way back to the civil war and hasn't improved.

Strange to think people can hold onto hatred for so long but we do see it in racists too. No legitimacy for the hatred but they stand by it just the same.

hatred is a nasty thing,,,I think 80 percent of the negative feelings we hold we were TAUGHT somewhere along the way by those we trust enough to pretty much disregard anything that points to the contrary,,,

I would like the notion that noone is perfect to be a more popular sentiment ,, so that when celebrities or politicians do things we disapprove of,,, we dont see it as personal or the end of the world but as one more in the billions of mistakes we ALL make around the globe.

Government distrust and hatred is always a good thing. It keeps people from trusting those who least deserve trust-the political class.

Hatred is never good...love is more powerful if enough believed it was so. We could change our world with love, yet we choose hatred instead.
Makes no sense at all to me...

Government hatred is perfectly rational, for government, by its nature, is anti-life. In other matters, love and rationality do work best.

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master." -George Washington

Hate if ya want to..be a hater. I choose love.

sounds like hatred of authority,, organization of large numbers is usually going to require some type of 'chain of command'

organized hatred..kinda like the KKK

Not in general, because the government is not a legitimate authority. I favor legitimate authority. This is determined through a system of property rights and contracts. (Voluntaryism)

Guilt by association fallacy.

pfffft

Justifiable hate...

Perhaps "hate" is the wrong word, as you use it differently than philosophers and scholars (and I) do in this context. "Rational distaste" would probably make more sense to you.

That was George Washington CARVER you.. ..you just quoted a black man who was born in the times of slavery.

I am so tired of incompetent hacks...people SAY ANYTHING.

OMG!!!!

How utterly DELICIOUS to see THAT post coming from YOU!!!

Oh that is HILARIOUS!!!!

yanno the same thought occurred to me too

FYI, I simply mistyped. Don't have a friggin cow, FFS! I'm anything BUT an incompetent hack, but I know a few of them if you're looking for one.

Most of the garbage you hear from the government haters, and yes it is garbage, is something they were TOLD, not something they experienced or have seen.

They are raised on it and then they read the right wing hate sites and repeat it all. It becomes habit and they surround themselves with like minds so they never have to really consider the wrongness of it.


They get taught to call anything different "liberal" and therefore bad and they continue the dark force of this unmerited, unjustified sickness.

Sadly all Americans have to suffer through them.

I know I would just like to see something come from them that has any positivity to it. Something that shows they actually think it through. Instead of the victim philosophy of fearmongering and hatemongering.

I TOLD YOU-don't call me right wing!! Those are fightin' words!

I don't fit the lame template you've concocted, and I loathe the government in general. I have trouble sometimes deciding whether to be mad or amused by your absurd, baseless State-worship.

I think I'll be amused and continue to expose the State for the tyranny that it is.

You misrepresent me here.

The group definition holds true for the most regardless of the denial from them.

I do not worship anything.

And to walk around with hatred of an institution that can be altered by myself if I make the effort doesn't sound intelligent to me so pardon me for not participating.

If I don't like what the government does I will continue to work to change it as I have always done. No hatred is required for this.