In Tailspin the author, Steven Brill, writes that “Americans have been divided into two groups: The vast majority who count on government to provide for the common good, and the minority who don’t need the government for anything and even view the government as something they often need to be protected from.” He continues, we “…depend on the common goods a government is supposed to provide. That is the purpose of government, and a country whose government fails to fulfill that responsibility …is on its way to becoming a failed state.”
The minority (wealthy) has convinced the majority (everyone else) that they don’t need government and that a true patriot is totally self-reliant. This has created anti-government militias and a reduction in the funding of federal programs like public education, labor protection, environmental protection, and national research and development. It created a belief that government needed to be disrupted and weakened and this has resulted in the election of the most destructive president in history. Right-wing media has been touting anti-government sentiments for years convincing those who need to be protected by the government to, ironically, destroy it and then they have been obfuscating the truth as the destruction occurs on a daily basis. Is the state failing or has it already failed? What can we do?
reilly m gray 