September 20, 2009 07:24 PM UTC

In defense of government

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• by: Duke Cox

A real understanding of a fundamental obstacle to solving our many problems nowadays can be found, I think, at a website submitted by a poster on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website this morning.

The site is entitled “Government is Good; An Unapologetic Defense of a Vital Institution.”  It is a project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College

http://www.governmentisgood.co…

Welcome to governmentisgood.com

Why a website defending government?  Because for decades, conservatives have been attacking government and not enough has been done to defend it.  Ever since Ronald Reagan declared in 1981 that “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem,” Republicans have been waging a political war against this institution.  Their core message:  the free market is good and government is bad.

Blithely ignoring anything good about government, conservatives have conducted a relentless smear campaign against this institution, portraying it as wasteful, ineffective, corrupt, oppressive, and bad for business.  And wherever they have been in power, Republican officials have pursued an anti-government agenda of slashing taxes, cutting social programs, and rolling back regulations. “Smaller government” has been the conservative mantra – except of course for the ever-growing expenditures for defense and national security.

This website is a response to this one-side, distorted, and misleading depiction of government.  It makes the case that government – despite its’ flaws – plays a valuable and indispensable role in promoting the public good.  Government programs are actually improving the lives of all Americans in innumerable ways.

Today, this more positive – and more realistic – view of government is beginning to gain more traction among the public.  For one thing, the mortgage system collapse and the ensuing deep financial crisis have given most Americans a renewed appreciation of the importance of government and the vital roles it plays in our society. If not for vigorous government rescue efforts, we would probably be slipping into an economic depression – with no end in sight.

And it is clear that this economic meltdown was caused in large part by conservative-led cutbacks in government regulation of financial markets. The media have been full of stories about how we need a more active government to re-regulate the financial sector. And nobody is talking about privatizing Social Security anymore.

But many Americans are still missing a crucial point: more energetic government is necessary in a whole range of areas in our society – not just in the financial sector. The anti-government philosophy of deregulation has not only proved a disaster for the financial system, but also for food safety, energy policy, and environmental protection.

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It is quite an impressive site and I hope the message Professor Amy is preaching is one that Americans take to heart and energetically inject into the national dialogue.

The “freemarket experiment” has reached a zenith of destruction, in many ways, in the United States. As Naomi Klein clearly explains in her great book, “The Shock Doctrine”, the economics of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School are fundamental to the “Robber Baron” antics of Wall Street and practically every other industry that does business in this country. The demonization of “government” is prerequisite to dismantling of government, which was the stated goal of “Reaganism”.

I highly recommend you pay Professor Amy a visit.

Cheers!