What happens when we lose faith in government?

[Batman]

Serious question. It's long been a running joke that government is, generally, incredibly bloated and incompetent. But if you look at the last few years it's starting to become a serious problem. Kind of like seeing your drunken uncle go from getting toasted at family barbecues to drinking from a paper bag on the street corner:
-- The response to Hurricane Katrina shows you can't rely on government help in a disaster.
-- The federal government drags its feet on a solution to illegal immingration. States come up with their own laws in the void.
-- 9/11, the terrorism threat and the Iraq war make us question national security.
-- Gas prices continue to climb. The federal government does nothing to come up with an actual solution other than chastising oil companies. No new energy sources, no laws to turn the screws on people who seem to be manipulating the markets
-- Approval ratings for both the president and congress hover in the 20 percent range

So, with all of these screw-ups, what happens when a majority of folks finally say enough and completely lose faith in the government to do their job? Do we end up with a revolution? The emergence of new political parties? Some other societal upheaval?
And is this election, whether Obama or McCain is elected, the last chance for the federal government to get things right before the **** totally hits the fan?

 

[spnited]

We end up doing a lot of bitching and nothing else because that's what we've come to be and accept in this country.
I have hope for Obama but in the longer run the system is badly broken, no one has any clue how to fix it and all we can do is complain because we really have no control and no real say in how the country is run.
All we can do is elect people we think (hope) will be better and wait for them to fail as well.

 

[alleyallen]

Sadly, I think it will have to get a LOT worse before any of the possibilities you suggested ever come to pass.

 

[andyouare?]

We also have to understand there are problems the government can't fix, ie high gas prices.

 

[bigpern23]

Limiting presidents to two four-year terms I think more or less wipes out any chance of revolution. No matter how bad it gets at the end of an eight-year cycle (and this is as bad as it has ever been in my lifetime, no exaggeration neccessary), there will always be hope of improvement when the next president takes office.

I think we may actually be in for something almost as bad as revolution -- static mediocrity. It will never get so bad that we have to enact serious change to improve the country. As such, "Just OK" will be good enough for most.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

Lets not be so myopic to believe that this is the worst it has gotten in U.S. history. Ask a grandparent about living in a depression where we had a ragtag army. And then ask how that turned out.

For a little historical perspective, our country is not in any worse shape than it was during the Civil War, when one half wanted to leave and the other half had serious doubts about the effectiveness of its leader (remember, Sherman's march to Atlanta is what kept us from President McClellan). We had a massive depression in the 1880s-1890s and a President who refused to have the federal government provide any direct assistance. In the late 1970s-early 1980s, we had a recession, stagflation, high gas prices and the loss of national pride as a result of a fiasco in the Middle East.

I don't have a lot of faith in my government. But I have plenty of faith in my country.

 

[Batman]

Sadly, I think it will have to get a LOT worse before any of the possibilities you suggested ever come to pass.

See, I think that's what we're hoping won't happen now. People see the 2008 election as a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to Bush's presidency. They hope new leadership will change things. But if we roll into 2010 or 2011, and gas is $6 or $7 a gallon, hydrogen cars are still years away, the economy is in the dumper, and there's STILL no wind of change in the air, what happens then?
I believe people get desperate then. And that scares me, because desperate people do stupid things that can't be undone.
Were people asking themselves this same question in 1931 and 1932?

 

[Ace]

Don't know about you, but I'm starting a militia.

 

[bostonbred]

Centuries ago, we would have started a revolution and overthrown the current administration.

Which I'm all for.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

Centuries ago, we would have started a revolution and overthrown the current administration.

Which I'm all for.

The idea that the new boss can't possibly be worse than the old boss is the logic that got us into Iraq.

 

[trifectarich]

A start is making every single one of our elected officials responsible for their actions. That means voting them out of office NOW.

 

[andyouare?]

Lets not be so myopic to believe that this is the worst it has gotten in U.S. history. Ask a grandparent about living in a depression where we had a ragtag army. And then ask how that turned out.

For a little historical perspective, our country is not in any worse shape than it was during the Civil War, when one half wanted to leave and the other half had serious doubts about the effectiveness of its leader (remember, Sherman's march to Atlanta is what kept us from President McClellan). We had a massive depression in the 1880s-1890s and a President who refused to have the federal government provide any direct assistance. In the late 1970s-early 1980s, we had a recession, stagflation, high gas prices and the loss of national pride as a result of a fiasco in the Middle East.

I don't have a lot of faith in my government. But I have plenty of faith in my country.

All that might be true, but I wonder about people's perceptions. Most people think they have it bad because they expect the American dream to be there's: house, family, wealth, material possessions.

I always remember a quote in a feature on a European basketball player (I forget, I think Divac?), who said, "In American, people expect to be happy. In Europe, people expect their lives to be difficult." Or something like that.

 

[bigpern23]

Lets not be so myopic to believe that this is the worst it has gotten in U.S. history. Ask a grandparent about living in a depression where we had a ragtag army. And then ask how that turned out.

I have not been alive for all of U.S. history. I was not alive in the depression. I stand by my comment that this is the worst it has been in my lifetime.

 

[Some Guy]

I think, for one, "things being as bad as they have ever been" are going to have to start affecting a lot more people.

Frankly -- and I know this isn't going to come out right, but **** it -- I don't know many people who's lives have actually been affected by what, according to many on this thread, is the worst thing that has ever happened to America.

Our lives have gone on. We've bought houses. We've gone on vacation. We've bought everything we've needed and much of what we've wanted.

Do gas prices suck? Do I wish my 401K didn't lose money every day? Sure. But, as of yet, they haven't really affected our lifestyle too much.

I'd assume there are plenty of people out there like me. And I'm thinking, until more people's lifestyles are threatened, they aren't going to be willing to do anything about the sky falling.

 

[old_tony]

What happens? We end up with seriously unqualified candidates for president like Barack Obama and John McCain.

 

[andyouare?]

:

 

[old_tony]

What happens? We end up with seriously unqualified candidates for president like Barack Obama and John McCain.

Parties aside, electability (or desire to run for the job) aside ... who, in your opinion, is the most "qualified" candidate for president, right now, today?

Mitt Romney certainly is much more qualified than the two current rummies. Bill Richardson ... Hell, even Ted Kennedy and Hillary on the left are much more qualified.

On the right, Liddy Dole, Fred Thompson ... Geez, I'd have voted Keyes if he was running before I would have voted McCain.

 

[Fudgie the Whale]

 

[andyouare?]

Oh well. We were having a semi-interesting discussion.

 

[Ace]

Here's who we need in charge to set things right. ...