Do you believe that our U.S. government has our best interest at heart?
There are two levels to this question.At the political level of Congress, the Senate and the White House, and all of their appointed staff, absolutely not. They have the interest of their corporate sponsors at heart. They serve the interest of the corporations who paid for their campaigns.But at the government staff level, I would say yes from my own personal experience having worked at this level. The government staff level consists of all the government employees who are not political appointees. These are every day people just like us who go to work from 9–5 and go home to their kids at the end of the day. They complain about politicians as much as we do.But when these employees are doing their jobs, they do the job to serve the people as best they can under the constraints placed upon them by the political appointees above them. But they try to do what’s right.
Do you believe your government?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.The old saying “believe half of what you see and none of what you hear” is not good advice, but it is marginally better than “don’t believe anything the government says” or than “everything the Government says is a lie”.A truly responsible citizen listens carefully and dispassionately analyzes what he/she is being told by both those in Government and those in opposition to it, then acts in accordance with the most rational conclusion as to what the truth is. This is very difficult, and, sadly, there is very little of it actually done.
Do you believe that government should promote the common good?
Yes. This is what confuses many people. There's a clause in the Constitution that says, "promote the general welfare". Now, let's define "general welfare", it means welfare FOR ALL. This is the common good the Constitution refers to. Today, we have welfare for certain groups of people, the poor, the blacks or sometimes the rich. Money is taken from one group and given to another. Is it any wonder no one's satisfied with government? The general welfare is supposed to be something every single citizen can benefit from. When government taxes, it should work to benefit ALL citizens.
Do you believe the Government created AIDS?
Of course it did...all of you seem to think that something like creating a virus (when looked at with an electron microscope proves to be the only virus that is almost perfectly spherical) to kill off, or to control the population of a particular race is just ridiculous. You know what? You're right. So is the CIA supplying drug dealers in the early eighties with crack, another epidemic that happened to devestate the black community in America (oh and I suggest that if you weren't around it, don't speak on it because you have NO idea on what it put us through!). Tuskegee Experiment, Jim Crow, etc. seem to be issues that we "overreact to" every now and then. Oh, and don't forget slavery...I know you are all tired of hearing about slavery! We should just get over it already, right? The problem is when you look at a certain issue, you (I mean 99% of the world!) have a tendency to do so withouth empathy, because you can't relate. How could you relate to an entire continent (Africa) of brown people being ridden with a disease introduced by the WHO? (look it up!) Seems far fetched, doesn't it? It is to you because you won't relate. Open your minds people, Reverend Wright is indeed right! You just found out something that's been known for over twenty plus years! Poor thing.
What makes a government good?
Government is strong when they have the ability to persuade those they govern to believe government has enough power to force them or should be forcing them to do government’s will.When enough of the citizenry do not believe government can force them or should force them to do its bidding, government has lost or will lose its strength and power to coerce.When enough of the citizenry do believe government can force or should force them to do its bidding, they become passive at the least or actively pro-government and repeat government’s own rhetoric to pass on what they have been persuaded by government’s propaganda.A true majority isn’t always needed to govern or to stop government. Many times all that is needed is a strong minority. If a determined 30% of the population rises up against government in a concerted effort to bring it down, this size minority usually will succeed as long as those actively opposing the minority are less in force than the minority. So if 41% of the population sits at home watching TV rooting for one side or the other, they don’t matter. It’s the active parties who make a difference.So if you are anti-government, be (non-violently) proactive about it, and remember: taxation is theft.