Democrats have had their share of political hacks and cronies, but Republicans have made an art of cashing in on government service through sweetheart deals for their former companies (think of Dick Cheney's stock options with Halliburton), and cushy jobs and lobbying gigs when they leave office. And the GOP has taken the lead in resisting all attempts to prevent such conflicts of interest.
The cynicism has been fueled, finally, by repeated Republican threats to bring the whole government to a grinding halt -- from Newt Gingrich and fellow House Republicans' shutdowns in the 1990s to John Boehner and companies' near assault on the full faith and credit of the United States government months ago. When the whole process of governing becomes bitterly partisan and rancorous -- when common ground is unreachable because one side won't budge -- government looks like a cruel game.
By mid-August, 2011, the public's view of Congress had reached an all-time low of barely 13 percent, and disapproval at an historic high of 84 percent. Viewed in narrow terms, this is bad news for all incumbents, Republican as well as Democrat. But viewed more broadly in terms of the larger Republican strategy of mass cynicism, it advances the right-wing agenda.
Back to that summer more than four decades ago when I worked in Robert Kennedy's senate office. There was no doubt in my mind I'd devote part of my adult life to public service. It wasn't so much that I trusted government -- the Vietnam War had already tapped a cynical vein -- as that I looked to government as the major instrument of positive social change in America.
I was not alone. The Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, Medicare, an American landing on the moon -- and before that an interstate highway system, expansion of higher education, GI Bill -- and before that, The New Deal and World War II -- all had engraved in the public's mind the sense that government was something to be proud of, an entity that we could rely on when times got tough.
Times are tough again, but the Weapon of Mass Cynicism has convinced most Americans they can't rely on government to help them out now. The nation is even entertaining the possibility of cutting Medicare and Medicaid, college aid, food stamps, Head Start. Perry calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme, and many are ready to believe him.
But if we can't trust government at a time like this, whom can we trust? Corporations? Wall Street? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett?
Or is each of us now simply on our own?
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