THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050029
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
Josh Billings said it in 1874: ``It is better to know nothing than to know what ain't so.''
In the wake of the Oklahoma bombing, we have been reminded that an awful lot of Americans believe things that just ain't so - a lot of them having to do with a supposedly malign government.
For more than a decade, a mainstream political theme has been the need to corral a federal government that's characterized as too big and out of control.
At the paranoid extreme, this healthy skepticism of government turns ugly and twisted. This is nothing new. The country has a long history of Klans, Know-Nothings, bigots and xenophobes who have warned of imminent oppression by a government under the secret influence of foreign cabals, the money power of Wall Street and other bogymen.
During the McCarthy era fluoridation was thought to be a communist plot. During Vietnam, some on the left were persuaded that Nixon had concentration camps just waiting for long hairs, peaceniks and blacks. Now militiamen believe an international conspiracy to create a new world order is using the IRS to take their money, the BATF to take their guns and affirmative action to take their jobs.
The idea that America is in thrall to an all-powerful, nefarious and sinister central government would be laughable if some of those who embrace the view most passionately weren't a danger to themselves and others.
In fact, the government isn't well-organized and competent enough to mount the kind of vast and devious plot its detractors imagine. Furthermore, the cumbersome checks and balances built into the system make such a conspiracy all but impossible even if there were a Professor Moriarty trying to mastermind such a thing.
Peaceniks to the contrary, Nixon was involved not in an immense plan to subvert liberty for all, but in a petty plot to win four more years for himself. And the legislative and judicial branches eventually acted - clumsily - to expose his misdeeds and call him to account.
In Iran-Contra, elements of the executive branch did try to forward the foreign-policy goals of a president clandestinely. But it's worth noting that the reason the plotters felt they needed a shadow government was the non-cooperation of the real one. Congress wouldn't play ball and kept trying to thwart the president. Far from being a powerful monolith, government is often divided against itself. But it rarely goes to extremes.
A third example is as recent as last Wednesday. Some far-right groups believe the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as part of a liberal one-world conspiracy, is out to disarm citizens the better to oppress them. But the Supreme Court ruled that a law restricting guns in the vicinity of schools is unconstitutional. As The New York Times reported, ``(T)he ruling put important new restraints on Congress' ability to pass laws intervening in many areas of daily life.'' Apparently no one's told the justices about the conspiracy.
An Oklahoma City woman who survived the blast said that she and her slain friends and co-workers were the government. Not faceless bureaucrats, but fellow citizens who process Social Security checks, enforce the law, recruit soldiers for the military and administer student loans.
Economist Herb Stein made a similar point in a recent Wall Street Journal essay when he denounced the rhetorical distinction so often made between ``the government'' (bad) and ``the people'' (good). He pointed out that government is people doing the people's business. He also noted it is not engaged in some gigantic con that takes money from citizens and disappears it. The money that comes from people goes to pay people - sailors and those who build aircraft carriers for them. It buys school lunches for children, a more comfortable retirement for seniors and seeds for farmers.
Yes, the government is sometimes heavy-handed and often inefficient. It often takes from those with the least clout and rewards those with lobbyists on the payroll. It can tilt against a minority at the behest of a majority. Too often, justice is more equal for the prosperous and powerful. Such flaws need to be corrected. A smaller, simpler, less intrusive, less expensive government is a worthwhile goal.
But Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., a Medal of Honor winner, has rightly remarked that it is sickening to hear the United States described as a tyranny, another evil empire. With all its faults, this is still one of the freest societies on Earth. Those who think America oppressive or tyrannical apparently don't know what a real tyranny looks like. That's being pretty far out of touch since the 20th century has had them end to end. And this country has sacrificed much in blood and treasure subduing them.
The government may need to be put on a diet, but it is not some dark force conspiring to destroy America. If any part of it were involved in such a plot, whistle blowers would come out of the woodwork. Instead, the government can still be altered at the ballot box, as November's election amply demonstrated. The malcontents obviously can't take yes for an answer.
Often, those who nurture paranoid fantasies are society's losers. Hard times breed hate and hysteria. Those being squeezed by economic forces they can't control, and offended by cultural changes they can't accept, want a single villain to blame for all their woes. Oddly, their grievance is against a government they feel is too big; but they also blame it for neglecting them. It's a weird case of doublethink.
They believe government is too powerful and intrusive when it tries to take care of other people's problems through welfare or affirmative action or foreign aid. But they also blame the government for not taking care of their own problems. They want it to turn back the clock to a time when blacks and women knew their place and men were men. They think the government is responsible for an evolving economy in which a high-school diploma isn't worth much, subsisting on a family farm is tough and staying in the middle class on one paycheck is no longer easy.
They give the government too much credit and too much blame. Most of the problems America faces aren't caused by the government and none can be solved by blowing it up. Free men in an open society are going to have to work together to adapt to changing times. It's too bad some Americans can't cope with life and have to retreat into bigotry, fear and fantasy, but they are free to think whatever rabid thoughts they please.
However, as Kerrey said in a recent speech, they aren't free to act like mad dogs. ``If you say that you're going to take the law into your own hands and threaten your neighbor or think you're going to threaten this government, we'll shut you down.'' The crazies may think that kind of talk is more tyranny on parade, but it makes the rest of us sleep better at night. by CNB