Do Americans Deserve The Government They Suffer From?

In his review of Michael Moore's new film, Edward Champion finally resigns himself to blaming Americans for our economic woes, quoting a statement supposedly made by Thomas Jefferson, that Americans get the government they deserve. Jefferson’s statement that people get the government they deserve hasn’t applied for decades, because our electoral process has been fundamentally corrupted by the influence of private money in campaign financing, which has become a euphemism for legal bribery.

People can only be blamed for the consequences of their political decisions when they have a genuine choice as to who they elect. When candidates from both parties have their pockets stuffed with cash by big banking, big pharma, etc., it’s no surprise that our domestic and foreign policy follows nearly a straight line continuity from one president to another, even when the electoral majority party in power switches from Republican, under Bush to Democrat now. Yet, public policy remains unchanged.

As Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven says, "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it."