Government by Who

Government by Who?

An editorial from the NY Times today opens by saying, “We are about to loose New Orleans.”  The cost of saving the city by building a good levee would cost $32 billion.  (If Halliburton gets the contract expect $64 billion.) Problem is we don’t have the money to fix a real problem like this.  Of course there is enough money to spend $225,826,900,313 and counting on fake problems like war on terror and finding WMDs.

I expect that it was around the end of WWII that Government for the People and by People gave its last gasp.  Roosevelt may have managed to return it to the people if it hadn’t been for that pesky war.  Doesn’t seem odd to you reader that for some reason we always manage to have a war just in the nick of time to prevent the People from making the Government of the People so that it might be for the people.  Vietnam saved the country from the civil rights reformers and Iraq is saving the country from doing nice things for the People like putting their town back, or letting them eat, or letting them go to school, or letting them see a doctor.

What was that Lincoln said at Gettysburg?  Something about Government for the People and by the People not perishing from the earth.  Well its gone from the earth folks.  It perished sure enough, even if it looks otherwise to you.  If you remember that cool sword fight movie, El Cid, you will understand what is going on.  El Cid died before the last battle.  The politicos had to tie him to his saddle so no one would panic as they went forth to battle the infidels.  Yep that’s right, Uncle Sam has been tied to his saddle for some time, and most of us have failed to notice.  There he is bones rattling around inside his shinny armor gaily (can I say gaily?) leading the charge while the politicos are busy empting the treasury.  

The People of New Orleans need their Government to be for them, but it is not.  The insanely rich just got another $95 billion dollar tax cut, just about enough to build 3 levee systems for The Big Easy.  It is like this because the Government has not been by the People for some time.