Originally intended by its creators to be small and obedient to its people, the U.S. government has grown and developed a mind of its own, acting with minimal concern to the needs and desires of its citizens. Like an uncontrolled child, this once well-behaved government has turned into the porky school bully, bossing around the other children on the playground and doing as it pleases, knowing there are no consequences to its actions.
At home, the people express concern and upset, but growing apathy keeps many from acting. Like a frustrated parent, many Americans can relate to the feeling, “I just don’t know what to do about it.” Change is needed. The government needs to be reminded who is supposed to be in charge. We need a revolution to re-establish the power of the people.
France is a great model for seeing the benefits of a well-behaved government. It’s people enjoy a high quality of life, shorter work weeks and more vacation time, and the French are happy overall with their government. This country started out similar to our own, but, unlike our rebellious one, it remains compliant to its people.
How has France’s people kept control? The constant fear of revolution keeps the French government in line with the needs of its people. Whenever the government has acted contrary to the will of the people, they have not hesitated to overthrow it and establish a new one with the old problems fixed (five times so far). France remains submissive to its people, knowing to whom it will have to answer if it acts out of line.
France has been unpopular with us recently because of its fear of its own people — they are hard to peer pressure. When France refused to join us in Iraq, we called them names. Now, we remain in a war that few condone. Who is the dumb one again? Apparently, the French learned from Vietnam. We might harbor hard feelings for their lack of support, but the French were able to make their government follow their desires. This is definitely something we should notice.
The American Revolution, which inspired the French revolution habit, was sparked because of conditions similar to what we have now: slacking government support and resentment over an unpopular war. (Many of the unfair taxes causing incitement were issued to pay for the Seven Years’ War.) How different was that from now? Well, despite problems in the pre-revolution 1760s, the Crown maintained an estimated 25 percent approval rate, with an extraordinarily high number of apathetic citizens generally content with the distant, non-controlling government.
Bush’s approval rates hover slightly above this, and an even higher number is outright enraged at the way things are going, but we don’t act. We all know that our votes don’t matter, and that few government officials are listening. The American people have become lazy and apathetic, succeeding only in losing control of their government.
Our country is continually running into the same walls, because the wrong people are at the helm. It’s time to re-establish control and remind everyone who is in charge.
