I woke on Friday to the news that Anders Behring Breivik, a citizen of Norway, bombed a government building in his home country, killing eight people, and then drove to a politically affiliated youth camp, where he proceeded to hunt and kill sixty-eight (68) children and adults.
Later in the morning I turned on the television to watch President Obama speak about the need for the United States to raise its debt ceiling. For months the debate has raged whether Congress should extend the debt ceiling, and if so, how.
Refusing to extend the debt ceiling, which close to 50 members of the House of Representatives have refused to do under any circumstances, will have disastrous consequences for every single American and much of the global economy. The United States will default on its obligations, and I do not exaggerate when I say that the world will face the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.
This whole debate embarrasses and shames me. While xenophobic terrorists hunt children in Norway, while U.S. troops fight and die half a world away, while citizens of autocratic regimes die in the streets for the fundamental right to protest, this country debates whether to pay its bills, even when the consequences of not doing so means higher costs, fewer services, and a guaranteed recession for every single American citizen.
Our politicians have become small. Not, as Speaker Boehner said recently, because of the size of the government, but because of the willingness of those who put ideology before common sense to sacrifice everything, even the well-being of our citizens, to achieve their ends. When I was younger, such resolve might have seemed brave, even honorable, but now it just seems foolish and destructive. We are a powerful and influential country reduced to squabbling over scraps when we engage in such an obvious fight. We waste time and resources that we could use to make the world a better place.
This debate is just one example of how we risk becoming a nation of small ideas and small people. Lost is the drive to become a strong community of individuals, to be a model for the rest of the world. In place is a relentless and misguided attack on anything that borders on finding common cause to work together to achieve something better. We have become fanatical about individualism. We are being reduced, simply, to the sum of our parts.
Beyond this embarrassment lies a worthy debate: how we should pay our bills. Some say spending cuts only, while others argue for a mixture of spending cuts, revenue increases, and reform of our longstanding entitlement programs. This debate is valid, but its terms have been grossly distorted. You often hear politicians say "we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem, therefore we should only cut spending." The implication is that government spending is inherently evil. That any dollar put into the common pool is wasted. That any tax dollar paid means the death of another job. This argument is not only short-sighted, it is patently wrong.
Government, and government spending, is nothing more than people working together to accomplish something that they cannot accomplish on their own. Few of us have the money to build a road or bridge. But when we pool our resources and work together, we can build vast interstate systems, dam huge rivers and canyons, and gain access to the farthest reaches of our great nation. Few of us can afford a battleship, or a stealth fighter, but when we all chip in, we can build the greatest military force in the history of the world, a force that provides security, allows for freedom, and is slowly becoming a force for good outside our borders.
And we should never forget that free enterprise, commerce, and capitalism can only thrive in nations that respect and enforce the rule of law, respect property rights, and enforce basic standards of quality. All of these things that require a capable and respected government.
There is great honor in an active and vigorous government built to serve its citizens. For too long we have been told that government is not the solution, but instead is the problem. I fundamentally reject that notion. More government programs and increased regulations are not always the solution, but nor are they always the problem. They often fix problems that we cannot or will not fix on our own.
To those who believe that government should simply get out of the way so businesses can create jobs, I ask you, upon whom do you rely to make sure that your contracts are enforced, or that the roads are paved so you can make your deliveries? Who will come to your aid when your warehouse is on fire, or when you have been robbed?
When we look back upon our history to understand what makes America unique, we tend to point to a group of people sat down to debate and create, almost from nothing, a new government; a government that would harness our individual strengths and our common bonds in service of a society greater than the sum of its parts. The fabric holding that together was not then and is not now common culture, it is not religion, it is not wealth. It is a form of government. It is a declaration of rights, a balancing of powers, and a healthy tension between ideas that constitute a vigorous and ever-changing society. And that fabric, the Constitution, is an imperfect and changing product of compromise.
More than any other country, America is bound together in common cause by the myth of its creation. We look to founding documents that set in place ideals, then principals, and then laws. We revere these documents as scripture and adhere to them still. Therefore, we do a great disservice to our history, and our future, when we denigrate the role and purpose of government, and the importance of compromise.
My request is simple: Take pride in our ability to work together, to compromise, and to find common ground. Take pride not only in some abstract idea of our country, but also in ourtangible achievements: Our ability to build the Hoover Dam, to clean up our rivers and our air, to allow free speech for all, and to extend civil rights to all groups.
Take pride in our country and our government and demand that our leaders do the same, instead of focusing on callous, ideological, self-interested policies that hurt us all.
We deserve more.
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