Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with government and its related institutions. Faith in government to solve problems and build community is at an all time low. Disillusionment with the central planning of President Obama is growing. Americans know intuitively that we need a new way forward.
How can we rebuild the American Community?
Liberty lovers are providing the vision.
In this powerful piece that appeared in The Federalist, Ben Domenech suggests that as faith in top-down government initiatives decreases, there is a huge opportunity for Americans to rebuild the civil society from the ground up. I make the same point in Discovering Possibility. This is a time for optimism as the decaying societal growth in being pruned so that the virulent strain can grow. There is a season for everything and the season of big government solutions is ending.
Domenech writes:
There is a path for the country out of the wreck of distrust and disaster we’ve seen at the federal level over the past decade, if the American people choose to take it. The truth is staring them in the face. If the American people reject the false promise of one more politician promising a governmental answer to their problems – “trust me, this time, I’m not like the other guys” – we could see a resurgence of bottom-up trust. This has happened before in American history (the 1830s, for instance): when the failure of large institutions leaves power decentralized, people can give in to hopelessness… or they can realize the sun will still rise the next morning, and that they are better off living as individuals and families, trusting their neighbors rather than trusting in factional political tribes or far off powers which will always fail to live up to their promises.
The failure of government to live up to its promise is an opportunity for honesty and clarity and for the American people to reexamine the role of the citizen and the state – not a moment for despair. There’s more to life, and more to a country, than government.
I agree! Come on along America. The people are not the government.
