Morning Bell: Solutions for Sanity
Conn Carroll /
Our country may just need a Rally to Restore Comedy after this past Saturday’s spectacularly unfunny Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall. But “The Daily Show” host and rally organizer Jon Stewart may have stumbled upon some truth in his closing remarks: “We hear every day about how fragile our country is — on the brink of catastrophe — torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every day. The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV. Americans don’t live here or on cable TV.”
The “here” Stewart is referring to is Washington, DC, the seat of federal power in this country. Since 1900, except for a brief dip in the 80s, Washington has taken more and more power away from the rest of the country. Then, almost 60% of government spending took place at the state and local levels. Today, the federal government spends more than twice as much as all other levels of government combined. This trend has only hastened under President Barack Obama, including: government-owned car companies, government-run health care, government-dominated mortgage markets and national school standards. With so many decisions being made for millions of Americans in just one city, is it any wonder that the country has become so politicized and polarized?
As President Ronald Reagan said in his First Inaugural Address: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?” By assuming more and more tasks in more and more areas outside of its core responsibilities, Washington has greatly damaged American self-rule. The federal government’s extended reach has weakened the states and pushed traditional social institutions into the shadows. (more…)