Americans Are Afraid To Ask ANYTHING From Their Government

I think all governments are pretty much just the compromise reached between ordinary people and the tiny minority that wants all the wealth and power for themselves. And having said that, the U.S. people are the worst bargainers since the Lenape tribe sold Manhattan to the Dutch for $24 (60 guilders) worth of beads.

It’s pretty pathetic the way the U.S. public is unwilling to ask anything of its government. First of all, Libertarians and most Republicans refuse the idea of getting anything from their government on principle. “Ask my government to do anything for me after all the power and money we’ve given them? Why, that would be communism.” Democrats ostensibly believe that government should actually provide things for the people but good luck with them ever holding government to account. They’re terrified of Republicans and too timid to ask their own party to do anything. “We’re just so happy to have you in charge instead of Republicans, we don’t want to stress you out lest we displease you and you lose the next election.”

And yet Americans have this foolish notion of themselves as brave and free and in charge of their government. They love nothing more than mocking the French, and call them things like “cheese-eating surrender monkeys.” Now granted, France hasn’t had a great record of winning wars in the last hundred years. But you take away World War II, which was fought mostly by the Soviet Union, and the U.S. hasn’t won any either. Even the French would have tried a little harder in Afghanistan than we did. The point is, when it comes to fighting against their own government, the French know how to shut shit down! The government fucks with the French people by trying to pass a trade deal they don’t like, the people dump a couple of tons of manure outside a government building or just burn the building down. They get out in the streets and get things done.

In America, agents provocateurs in the government give protestors a pallet of bricks to use and the people just ignore it. Instead of building guillotines to threaten politicians, Americans grab their guns and look for property to protect from protestors angry over people getting killed by cops for driving while black.

I mean, you would think the base minimum a people would demand from a government that wants to make all the rules would be free healthcare for all. It seems pretty reasonable. Or how about this, if the government wants to be in control of everything, at least demand a little openness from the government. Demand that every last scrap of detail about the JFK murder be available to everyone. Demand to know who in our government had connections with Jeffrey Epstein and what those ties were. Demand that when the government fails utterly like with the train crash in East Palestine that someone be held accountable. It’s just common sense.

For God’s sake, why don’t we see fit to demand drinkable water? Is this too much to expect from our government? Can’t we start with this demand?

But we ask for nothing and get less. You’d think just once the voters would say “Okay, we’ll give you our children to be used as cannon fodder in your wars for oil if you’d just guarantee we get a little maternity leave.” Pet Buttigieg gets it, why can’t we?

I think the problem is they play a game of Good Cop/Bad Cop with us. We’re so terrified we’ll end up with the other party running the government, we’re unwilling to demand anything from our own. We are so, so happy just to have our own party refuse us a raise in the minimum wage instead of the other guys’ party, who would refuse to raise the minimum wage EVEN HARDER! For every time the government utterly fails us, we are left with the idea that it would be even worse if the other guys were in charge. Or that it would have been better if our guys had been in charge.

We’d be better off bargaining with a monarch, because at least there would be no doubt about who was screwing us over. A king couldn’t blame it on the other party because there would be no other party. If the Soviet Union had permitted a second party, perhaps it never would have fallen. The CCP has no one it can point fingers at.

Perhaps, like the First Peoples, we have no idea what we are giving away for a handful of beads. That, like the Lenapes, we’re selling out our future and our children for a handful of shiny things, for convenience and for distraction. Maybe we simply are unable to get our heads around the idea that some people can think so differently than us. That they would be willing to destroy this country and sell out its people for short-term profit. Perhaps, when it comes down to it, that tiny minority that wants all the wealth and all the power don’t see us any differently than the people they bought (stole) Manhattan from.

The Dutch bought Manhattan and then put a wall up to protect their purchase from others who might try to take it from them. They bought the land for a paltry 60 guilders, then spent 5,000 guilders to protect it by building that wall. It would have cost a lot more if the labor hadn’t been provided by slaves. The English eventually gained control of Manhattan, tore down the wall and built a street named after it, Wall Street. They turned it into place for buying and selling, beginning with a slave market in 1711.

Our position is not so very different from those who lived here hundreds of years ago. Agreements are made by those who make the rules and the rest of us assume, without really knowing how things work, that they would never screw us over for a handful of beads. God, we’re a trusting people. No wonder why we have nothing more to show than a handful of worthless baubles and gewgaws.