congress
consent of the governed
health care reform
nancy pelosi
november elections
we the people
will of the people
Are the American People Incompetent to Govern Themselves?
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16676)
Boston, Massachusetts
February 28, 2010 12:18pm CST
Nancy Pelosi is urging Democrats to pass the health care reform bill, even if it means they will lose in the upcoming elections and be forced out of Congress.
"We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people."
Although I agree their primary function in Congress is not to keep their jobs, by admitting that the health care bill will cost them their jobs, she's admitting that it's not the right thing to do. Not the right thing, because the job description is to represent the will of the people in government. However, she feels that they know better than the American people, they must act in defiance of the people.
When elected officials act from their own will and their conviction that they know better than their constituents how they should live their lives, raise their families and spend their income, we no longer have a representative form of government. We have despotism.
If they wanted to be honest, they would admit that they believe they are smarter than you and more competent to make decisions for your life than you are. They don't say it in so many words, but they tell you nonetheless by their actions.
If you support this wresting of power from the people, don't tell me why we need health care or why you support the health care reform that Pelosi intends to pass - tell me straight. Tell me that you believe that the majority of Americans are incompetent to make decisions about their own lives, and that the intellectual elite must take over to save them from themselves.
4 people like this
5 responses
@gewcew23 (8007)
• United States
28 Feb 10
We already self-govern ourselves. Think about it we do not murder or rob our neighbors because there is a law on the books against this kind of activities but because we have logic, reason, and for the most part respect for each other. I live in a kind of unique area of my state, just right out side of a major city but it is very rural. I have live here for about five years and have never seen a police man cruising down our street. Never once has a crime been committed in my neighborhood. Yet the city that I live outside of, about 3 miles, has crime yet police drive up and down their streets. When you go to a store to shop, you do not need government to tell you what to buy, or to force the store to sell you their products. When you find your spouse, you do not use corrosion, but both of you voluntarily decide to marry each other. Only thing government does is to tell you who you cannot marry. Even when we drive on roads I believe that we all stay on the correct side of the road not because government tells us so but because we do not want to kill someone and our self.
I no I am the only anarchist here on MyLot but I would love just once in my life to be able to live my life to my own devises. I live in Arkansas, why should someone in San Francisco be able to tell me how to live my life? My body is my own, my life is my own, and everything I own is mine and mine alone.
One last thing we are all just people are we not? If I cannot self govern myself then how can anyone govern my life for me? If no one is responsible enough to govern themselves then how can anyone be responsible enough to govern someone else's life?
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
28 Feb 10
I doubt you are the only anarchist, but the word conjures up a different vision of anarchy for most than you mean.
The liberal elite believes that they are responsible enough to govern others, because of their superior intellect and as we have been told by the White House and Congress over and over - we would want this bill if we could only understand it. They tell us daily that we are just too simple to understand. We don't want it, because we've been hijacked by angry mobs and bamboozled by pundits. But when we get it, we'll like it.
You are right that we exercise self-government in our daily lives, as we perform the activities of daily living. The law is for the lawless, it gives us a recourse to those who will not govern themselves and who injure others in the process. The law is not there to regulate the law-abiding.
2 people like this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
28 Feb 10
While many Americans are fully capable of self-governing, it has become obvious that in the past the majority have proven that they are not capable of self-governing.
Simply look at the past -
Clinton was reelected for a 2nd term even after the scandals were coming out in the open.
Bush was reelected for a 2nd term even though it was obvious that he was selling our country to big business, increasing the national debt, and ruining our country.
Obama was elected even though there were many inconsistancies in what he said and who he was talking to at the time. He was promising everything to everyone, even when he was being contradictory.
It is quite obvious by these majority decisions of the American people regarding the Presidency (and also the caliber of the people representing us in Congress) that the majority of the American people are gullible and will believe every smooth-talking liar that comes their way.
The majority clearly care nothing about self-governing; they only care about self-gratification - which person tells the biggest lies that if they ever did come true would be most advantageous to them.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
28 Feb 10
The solution to fixing what you see as wrong is a ruling class. You suggest that the majority care nothing about self-governing and aren't capable of it. Now tell me how you will determine who will make all the decisions for everyone else. Don't believe that you will have a say. There are governments that are set up with a ruling elite, but we don't have that form of government.
Lincoln said "you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time".
Part of being free is the freedom to make mistakes or choices other than the ones that some people think you should make. Mistakes in politics have a way of self-correcting with subsequent elections.
A recent CNN poll found that the majority of Americans now believe that big government is a threat to individual rights. The majority sees the need for self-correction.
The bottom line is that our form of government may not always be perfect, but the solution to correcting the tendency of some to make bad decisions is to take decision-making out of the hands of the majority and give it to a select few. government so designed does not encourage or foster freedom.
1 person likes this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
1 Mar 10
"There are governments that are set up with a ruling elite, but we don't have that form of government."
Yes, we do. Our ruling elite is made up of the "wealthy" people who have the "right connections".
If you do not have both money and the right connections you don't have a chance of every getting anywhere in politics.
We like to delude ourselves and say it isn't so; but, the facts say otherwise.
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
28 Feb 10
I believe that the people have gotten lazy over the years and been silent as bill after bill has been passed wasting our tax money and resources. So much so that they DO think we are stupid and need taking care of.
If they won't listen, we will just have to shout louder until they finally get the idea. THEY are the stupid ones, but it's our own fault. You know what they say about giving an inch...we've done that and now they think they are owed the mile.
1 person likes this
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
1 Mar 10
The intellectual elite have worked hard for the past 45 years, starting with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 passed during the Johnson administration, to make sure the American people were incompetent to make decisions about their own lives. http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/education-in-colonial-america/ This was education in America before the federal government took over. Here's what it was in 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338 I would say the American people have been incompetent, but they are starting to see the light. Who would have thought that the party that wanted to keep us in the dark are the ones who accidentally turned on that light.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
1 Mar 10
It has been going on a long time, the indoctrination was in swing when I was in school and I am ancient. As the parent of school-age children, I see the campaign has been stepped up. History should be the way to deflect the current liberal bias in schools, but sadly, they have changed the history textbooks so they are hardly recognizable.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
1 Mar 10
I believe she did. Her ego is so large, however, I believe she thinks that the American people will thank the hardworking congress for ignoring their wishes, because as she says, we don't want their health care bill simply because we don't understand it yet. Or perhaps she is just willing to sacrifice herself on the altar of liberalism, or Obama, or socialism... whatever it is she is trying to achieve. She and Obama have told their Democratic colleagues that they are willing to sacrifice them, too, and it is their duty to offer themselves up.
1 person likes this
