Our country is over 200 years in the making and much has changed in that time. When America was founded, the notion was for it to be led by a constitutional republican government, rather than an authoritarian monarchy, as was the fashion of the time. This seems second nature to us now and sometimes it seems like we take it for granted more and more. Our generation is a spoiled one who has grown up with freedom all their lives, lacks the vigilance of past generations and scarcely is willing to lift a finger to defend freedom for oneself – even less for others. I am not totally innocent of this societal laziness myself and I do not claim to be. I believe we all need a wake-up call sometimes though.
Throughout the last hundred years the role of government in people’s everyday lives has increased a fair share. This has left many people less self-reliant and personally responsible than in past times. I do not mean to say that this time that we occupy is not a fortunate one – many advances have been made by humanity recently and there are so many conveniences in our lives now that we can barely comprehend life even only 20 years ago. However, not all the change has been for the benefit of the common man. A fully responsible citizen under small government is replaced by a distant, “entitled” citizen under a nanny state.
I believe America is still the most free and prosperous nation on Earth – but I also believe one should always strive for more. I envision a world where government exists to protect people from coercion and is responsible and accountable to the people. In theory, this is similar to what we have now, but there is much in practice that contradicts this notion. Not all important economic and personal decisions are made by private citizens anymore and government has assumed much of that responsibility.
On all sides government has grown more distant. The executive branch and the presidency is probably where this is most true. In the days of Abraham Lincoln, believe it or not, the president actually had office hours where members of the general public could come to the White House and meet with the president in person and public opinion had more direct access to the presidency. The practice was discontinued shortly afterwards in the post-Civil War period. But the executive branch was still not as distant an institution as it was today. In Theodore Roosevelt’s time the White House was a mostly open place where people would picnic. This dwindled over time, but it still occurred until the 1960s. In the latter 20th century, however, security tightened and the public was increasingly pushed away. After September 11th this happened even more. Today, one had the advantage of sending an email to the president, yes, but this is not quite the same as office hours – not by a long shot.
It is not merely the executive branch that has grown more distant from the public over time. For the past 100 years, the number of representatives in the United States Congress has remained at 435, even while the number of United States citizens has skyrocketed. As a result, the average congressional district has become more populous and congressman are less responsive to the typical constituent.
The judiciary has not nominally altered its role much, but that does not mean it is without its troubles. Since the 1930s the job description has left behind the simple interpreting of the Constitution and the law to find broader definitions and expand laws as individual judges see fit. This is a long-standing issue and is likely to remain a controversial one.
Is there a solution to all this? Is it possible for the government to be as it once was, the servant of the citizenry? Yes and no, I believe, is the answer. I do not foresee a return to presidential office hours in contemporary 21st century America. But I do believe that technology and cultural evolution will bring new ways to hold a government accountable. In the long run – the really long run – I hope that freer and fairer trade will make all governments more submissive from an economic standpoint. That is a long process though and the issue remains how to build a better world for ourselves today. The internet is a vast networking tool available to give all the ‘plebeians’ voices to be heard and actions to be took. It also makes the government more transparent than it once was, which is an improvement from past times to ours. Mass voter education enables a country with democracy in its system to survive. It is also possible to increase the size of the House of Representatives, which is hard but not completely unfeasible. New Hampshire, a small state in terms of population, has the largest state legislature in the nation – and is un-coincidentally the biggest remaining home to retail politics, with one state representative representing as few as 3,000 citizens. A larger House of Representatives would have higher bureaucratic costs to the populace, tax-wise. However, the benefit may be ample.
On the whole, I am optimistic about certain improvements recently in terms of the internet’s success at promoting common sense. I hope my blog can one day play an integral role in such a noble process. It is imperative that mass networking translate into knowledge and reform. If it goes astray, the consequences are dire.
