Government

5 Reasons Why Careening From Near Shutdown to Near Shutdown Is Bad for America (2/28/2024)

Slippery Slope to the Right

"the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government" Thomas Jefferson on his departure from the US Presidency.

arguments in defense of the centralization of power and rising authoritarianism are always different, but the results are always the same: corruption, stagnation, dictatorship, repression, violence. Gary Kasparov

In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule -- at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it. Gilens and Page

Dictatorship has, in one sense, been the default condition of humanity. The basic governmental setup since the dawn of civilization could be summarized, simply, as taking orders from the boss. Big chiefs, almost invariably male, tell their underlings what to do, and they do it, or they are killed. Sometimes this is costumed in communal decision-making, by a band of local bosses or wise men, but even the most collegial department must have a chairman: a capo di tutti capi respects the other capi, as kings in England were made to respect the lords, but the capo is still the capo and the king is still the king. Although the arrangement can be dressed up in impressive clothing and nice sets—triumphal Roman arches or the fountains of Versailles—the basic facts don’t alter. Dropped down at random in history, we are all as likely as not to be members of the Soprano crew, waiting outside Satriale’s Pork Store. Adam Gopnik writing in the New Yorker 12/23/2019

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

Right now, government is being run for the benefit of a few. It doesn't have to be that way. Unfortunately, Americans have been brainwashed by the corporate media to hate the only device that can be used to save them: government. Jay Hanson

I believe in limited government ... No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literary or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens to contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race. Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of it All.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. Paul Krugman

America's fundamental problem, in my opinion, since Ronald Reagan came to office January 20, 1981, and declared the fateful words: "Government is not the solution to our problem, Government is the problem" we have been on a more than a 30 year jag of dismantling the very means to address the challenges we face as a society. Jeffrey Sachs CSPAN 2/17/12

"We have people in office now who don't believe in compromise and, I have to admit, on the Republican side don't even believe in government. ... When I got to Washington, everyone at least believed in transportation infrastructure. It was routine. Reagan raised the gas tax, but Clinton couldn't do it after the Republicans took the House in 1994 and Newt [Gingrich] became speaker. And Obama refused to even try." Ray LaHood." quoted in Tailspin, Steven Brill pg 176.

... that the thing we were once most proud of -- this our republic-- is the one thing that we have all learned to ignore. Government is an embarrassment. It has lost the capacity to make the most essential decisions. And slowly it begins to dawn upon us: a ship that can't be steered is a ship that will sink." Lawrence Lessig: Republic, Lost

"...what separates successful states from failed ones is whether their governing institutions are inclusive or extractive. Extractive states,...are controlled by ruling elites whose objective is to extract as much wealth as they can from the rest of society and to maintain their own hold on power." (Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson)

There are two types of government: one that serves the people, and the other extracts wealth from them: Democracy vs Oligarchy. Republicans put the US in the second category. Some of their scams are in plain sight. .

In the US this neatly characterizes the two political parties and is an accurate interpretation of left and right. The right is for the wealthy authoritarians, the left is for the people. The right is for the private sector because it can legally extract wealth, the left favors the public sector which can benefit everyone. As wealth inequality increases, so does politics move to the right.

Propaganda from privatized media continues to send the message that the private is always better. Bad policy choices lead to extreme inequality, and that is a hallmark of bad government. Concentrated political power inevitably creates a privileged position for those who exercise it. It is class warfare and the rich are winning.

James Surowiecki’s book ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’ argues that the crowd can make better decisions than any individual. Ideally, informed individuals deliberate evidence, find consensus, and act. That’s why science is the best way to determine fact, how juries work, it’s how democracy should work, and why liberal democracy is the best kind of government. It only works if good information is consumed by educated voters. Capitalist media can be corrupted by advertising and becomes propaganda, for example Fox News. Democracy has been seriously weakened in the US.

Government is only as good as the decisions it makes. Although science is the best way to determine fact, often politicians don't listen to scientists, so the kids will pay a terrible price for known problems: global warming, pollution, overpopulation, droughts, food shortages, famine, war and other catastrophic problems. Our institutions are only concerned with the short term, and seem incapable of responding in time.

Government is (or should be) the referee between competing power groups: corporate, wealthy (capitalism), religious, environment, social wellbeing, military, or democracy. The more wealth inequality, the worse the government.

When one of these groups consolidates power into a small group, the result is right-wing government. Royalty is rule by wealthy families. Fascism is defined as rule by corporations. Theocracy is rule by religion. Communism was originally supposed to be rule by workers, it resulted in dictatorship: Lenin, Stalin, Putin. The US has empowered a President much more powerful than the king we sought to overthrow. Democracy is rule by public consensus.

Good government keeps various interests within boundaries, so it regulates, but Republicans despise regulation. Election rigging, crime, corruption, polluters,extreme wealth, propaganda need to be identified and constrained. Can we prepare for disasters like famine, drought, migration, pandemics,climate collapse, or wars ?

History shows that relying on a single authoritarian to provide direction has been disastrous, after all our major wars occurred that way. Trump increasingly has no constraints as he ignores Congress oversight, appoints sycophants to Courts and Agencies. Trump lies a lot, but insists on agreement, so there is a mass exodus of experts and institutions fail. Pandemic response was deadly as a result. He denies climate science. Climate devastation will be the mother of all market failures. The Supreme Court made him immune from prosecution. We most likely are destroying the planet for the kids.

The US is the major democracy with the greatest inequality. That’s been true for a long time, and that inequality of ours is still increasing. The wealthy game the system until it is corrupt and no longer responds to the people. The working class has been sinking for decades and there appears to be no end to it. Fox News and other right-wing propaganda outlets use the religious right and racists to polarize and keep a wealthy minority in control. Unfortunately, capitalism is winning now, it is plundering and destroying the earth for profit.

Elections might be a democratic solution, but there are many obstacles. Media often broadcasts trivia, propaganda, or GOP lies, so voters get unreliable information, have other concerns, fail to pay close attention, and are faced with voting procedures rigged for Republicans who gerrymander, suppress voters, make it difficult to vote, invite foreign interference, and otherwise cheat. Higher education is so expensive that it imposes inescapable debt for all but the elite.

Conservatism is a front for religious who prefer their theocracy, capitalists who think the market is the best decision maker, the military who take over when institutions fail, and racists who think their culture is better than anyone else, all are authoritarians who don't like democracy.

It is no accident that the middle class (most people) has been sinking since Reagan took office. By attacking government, Reagan took out the ref. Deregulation also removes vital government functions, such as the need to protect the environment, public health, to maintain infrastructure, or to guard against corruption.

Republicans cut government services, minimize welfare, neglect infrastructure, sell off (privatize) public assets, bust unions, and give themselves tax cuts at public expense. They would also repeal healthcare to save money for their tax cuts. Long run they have produced extreme inequality, put an authoritarian in office, weakened the law, and brought on a fascist government.

The Supreme Court defined much of the policy that has brought on corporate rule, allowed big dark money into elections, suppressed unions, rolled back the Voting Rights Act, and of course Republicans have further packed the Court with ideologues that will no doubt enable right-wing government.

Corporations or small business should not be providing social services. For example, healthcare is not provided to everyone, it discourages job mobility, a threat to privacy, unnecessary bureaucracy, and it is withheld for high-risk companies and people.

Historically as inequality rises so does right-wing politics, authoritarianism usually wins, and stamps out democracy. A booming stock market is great for the wealthy few. Homelessness, poverty and economic insecurity also increase for the many. Institutional forces including government, market, religion, and others ramp up inequality weakening democracy.

When government is run for the benefit of the people, that is a left wing government. Republicans would call it socialist or even communist. Labor unions can bargain to improve conditions for people, so Republicans are tireless in opposing unions. Republicans are always ready to downsize Social Security, eliminate healthcare, privatize schools, prisons, public land (for profit.) but to implement huge tax cuts for themselves. It is questionable whether Republicans are willing to maintain even minimal infrastructure.

Republicans are mostly concerned about money and protecting their wealth. Their racist, anti-immigrant attitudes and fortress mentality should not surprise anyone since they represent billionaires. They are deficit hawks when not in office. Otherwise they claim tax cuts, paid from taxpayer debt, will bring prosperity, but mostly for themselves. Changing the withholding table made the Trump Tax cuts look positive for a lot of people, but actual tax benefit will expire for most people. Taxes have been reduced on the wealthy so that they pay less than working people. Continuing Republican pressure to cut taxes has had the effect of starving public facilities, so we have dismantled rails, burdened students with higher education costs, failed to maintain infrastructure, cut vital social programs, and more.

To pay for lost revenue, Rs cut health care, social security, Medicare, welfare programs, public employee benefits. They cut higher education and profit from student debt.

They privatize (sell off public assets): schools, prisons, public lands, and crumbling infrastructure. They impose religious views on women s rights, deregulate for-profit schools while keeping them white.

Lobbyists, well funded from Citizens United, allow fossil fuel polluters to deny global warming, pharma to keep drug prices high, health care to remain a corporate feeding frenzy, Banks get bailed out when risky trades fail which makes a volatile business cycle an opportunity to make money. Deregulation of the financial sector can be a technique to blow up the economy, a part of the Republican Scam.

These all redistribute upward, sink the middle class, and make government unresponsive.

What Republicans actually mean by smaller government is that they would cut social programs, and currently they are attempting to cut bargaining rights and compensation of public employees including pensions.

Cutting pensions, for Republicans, is always a way to dodge budget difficulties. In the private sector it is a way to dip into a honey pot for oligarchs. This is the business model for private equity.

Combined with other Republican initiatives, like austerity (but not when they are in control), welfare reform, tax reform, and others it is clear that the result will accelerate income inequality by rewarding oligarchs and impoverishment of the working class. This IS class warfare.

Republican government is pushing most people into debt servitude for the benefit of oligarchs who actually do run things.

Much government activity, trade agreements, law, intelligence, is carried out in secret because it favors the 1% and is often wrong.

Republicans claim they want smaller government, but they are always willing to lavish resources on the military. WMDs are a poor jobs program in many Congressional districts. For decades military action has failed to serve any purpose except to reward war profiteers. The war economy is an economic bubble which needs to be carefully deflated. Russians have demonstrated that cyberwar is much cheaper, less destructive, and far more effective than conventional warfare. The US is in denial and building a new round of nuclear weapons, their use may be the end of humanity.

Apparently we cannot have both a large military and a government that serves people, so people must suffer. The price of empire includes abandoning human rights, destroying civil liberties, hollowing out the economy, and, since blowback is inevitable, making us much less safe.

The US is not doing well, the middle class is sinking, democracy is in trouble, infrastructure is crumbling, security is ratcheting up, surveillance is unprecedented, but has the world´s largest military and a nuclear arsenal like the world has never seen. It ignores climate science, can no longer be relied on to live up to international agreements, allies itself with authoritarians, and appears to be rapidly approaching Fascism.

The declining empire is inclined to Fascism. The Fascist police state doesn't care about its people. We learned that from Syria and the Nazis. We have likely lost WWII.

The US is facing slowly evolving Fascism, heightened possibility of nuclear war, and slow climate collapse that will drive migration and be the mother of all market failures.

The two types of government are really two sides of a spectrum. On the right, authoritarian extreme, government goes to war with its own people for the benefit of a few: Syria, for example, bombed and poured chlorine gas on its people, the Nazis didn´t hesitate when their people were destroyed. On the Left are Nordic countries, (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden) that recognize health care, education, eldercare, family leave and functioning infrastructure as government responsibilities. Taxes are high but people get a better deal. Nordic countries also tend to have strong unions. They are happier.

The gini coefficient measures income inequality and, I would argue, is a rough measure not only of the quality of government but also on the state of the social contract. It can be kept in control with strong unions, progressive taxation, inheritance taxes, a wealth tax, a strong social safety net, healthy media, and public education. Nordic countries like Finland, Denmark, or Norway have been more successful with these policies. It is good for decision making and democracy.

Having seen Nero, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, Orban, Putin, or Trump, we should have noticed that a single unchecked individual with the power to go to war is an example of bad government and an existential threat.

This time is different. Republicans supporting Trump may destroy the planet.

Since earth is our only home, our first priority, if we hope to survive, is to take care of it. However we are rapidly destroying it: over populating, polluting, deforesting, overfishing, rapidly consuming non-renewable resources. We need to carefully preserve what remains. Although evidence is clear that climate is deteriorating, Republicans have obstructed action, Trump said it was a hoax, making the US the only country not to join the Paris Climate Agreement. Growth is not the answer.

From what we know of space, we won't get a second chance.

See the forecast.

The arguments in defense of the centralization of power and rising authoritarianism are always different, but the results are always the same: corruption, stagnation, dictatorship, repression, violence.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) November 11, 2019

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights." Einstein on Politics, Rowe and Schulmann. Monthly Review, May 1949.

"Representative institutions no longer represent voters. Instead, they have been short-circuited, steadily corrupted by an institutionalized system of bribery that renders them responsive to powerful interest groups whose constituencies are the major corporations and wealthiest Americans. The courts, in turn, when they are not increasingly handmaidens of corporate power, are consistently deferential to the claims of national security. Elections have become heavily subsidized non-events that typically attract at best merely half of an electorate whose information about foreign and domestic politics is filtered through corporate-dominated media. Citizens are manipulated into a nervous state by the media’s reports of rampant crime and terrorist networks, by thinly veiled threats of the Attorney General and by their own fears about unemployment. What is crucially important here is not only the expansion of governmental power but the inevitable discrediting of constitutional limitations and institutional processes that discourages the citizenry and leaves them politically apathetic." Sheldon Wolin

“ There is an enormous gap between public opinion and policy. In 2005, for example, right after the federal budget was announced, the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which also studies domestic issues, did an extensive poll on what people thought the budget ought to be. It turned out to be the inverse of the actual budget: where federal funding was going up, an overwhelming majority wanted it to go down. The public opposed increases in military spending overall and supplemental spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, which is going up even more now. Where the budget was going down; social expenditures, health, renewable energy, veterans benefits, the United Nations right across the board, the public wanted spending to increase. I asked a friend to see how many newspapers in the country reported this. Apparently not one.” Noam Chomsky

. . . as top jobs systematically go to hacks, there is an inevitable process of corrosion. We’re already seeing a degradation of the way our government responds to things like natural disasters. Well, there will be more and bigger disasters ahead. And the people in charge of dealing with those disasters will be the worst of the worst. Paul Krugman (3/25/2019)

All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed" I.F. Stone

"As long as politics is the shadow cast on society by big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance." John Dewey

"The US Congress is possibly one of the most dysfunctional governance institutions/organizations on the planet (followed all too closely by the Supreme Court and the Presidency) given its enormous resources and historical context. Their inability to grasp the real nature of the economic woes and to find solutions that will help, for example, the working poor, is having a major negative impact on human happiness, but it is insidious and subtle in how it plays out. Discerning exactly how it works is a lot like trying to ascertain how global warming is “causing” any particular weather catastrophe. We know the causal links exist but tracing them through all of the connections in a complex network of relations is a daunting task." Civilization Collapse 3.0

Nothing less than Survival of our Constitutional Gov’t is at Stake in Trump’s moves on USPS and Census (8/13/2020)

Robert Reich: 2020 is About Oligarchy vs. Democracy (10/29/2019)

CNN Poll: 4 in 10 call this the worst governing of their lifetimes (2/4/2019)

Closed until further notice (12/22/2018)

Undoing Democracy by Michael Lewis — is America losing the capacity to function? (9/30/2018)

Warren and Sanders: Who Is Congress Really Serving? (12/17/2017)

Another wave of top State Department officials quit this week in ‘Black Friday’ mass resignation (8/27/2017)

How We Killed Expertise (And why we need it back.) (9/2017)

Information lockdown hits Trump’s federal agencies (1/24/2017)

America will soon be ruled by a minority (12/7/2016)

Meet The Latest Vulture Capitalists In Donald Trump’s Cabinet! (11/30/2016)

Francis Fukuyama: America is in “one of the most severe political crises I have experienced” (10/26/2016)

Democrats Ignore the 500-Pound Lobbyist in the Room (7/7/2016)

Trust in Government Near Historic Lows (11/23/2015)

75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption (9/19/2015)

Why We Can't Get the Government We Want and Deserve (12/24/2014)

Anthony Weiner and the Revolving Door (9/18/2014)

Americans' Trust in Government Down (9/15/2014)

The Reason Republicans Were Willing to Shut It Down (9/30/2012)

Big Storms Require Big Government (1/26/2012)

Why Calls For Less Government Mean More Power For Millionaires and Corporations (11/9/2011)

Stop Bashing Government Workers (9/6/2011)

"Government Doesn't Create Jobs" (11/9/11)

The Case for Big Government: Jeff Madrick

Nation on the Take, Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman show how the only interests that matter in US politics are those of the wealthy elite.

"Is the government not creating jobs when it contracts Boeing or McDonnell/Douglass to build a fighter plane, or some other company to build an IED-resistant Armored Personnel Carrier? Is the government not creating jobs when it funds NIH research grants...and those scientists order kits and equipment from biotech supplier companies? Is the government not creating jobs when it decides to build a road, or a dam? Rush and the GOP believe that if you just repeat something over and over and over, you will get enough people to believe it. And they could be right, a decade or more of denying Global Warming as a hoax has almost 1/2 of Americans calling themselves experts and actual climate scientists as frauds!"

Local

See Towns.

South East Connecticut Council of Governments

State

flag

State of Connecticut
Connecticut General Assembly
Connecticut Departments
Connecticut State Agencies
Connecticut Blue Pages
Department of Consumer Protection (No Call list for telephone solicitors. Toll Free (800) 842-2649)
Senate Democrats
Senate Republicans
Connecticut Network Resources
Connecticut Libraries
Second Congressional District Watch

Connecticut

Connecticut Legislators with ALEC Ties (Republicans all)

House of Representatives

Rep. DebraLee Hovey (R-112), State Chairman[21]; Public Safety and Elections Task Force
Rep. John Piscopo (R-76), Second Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors[22][42] and Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force and International Relations Task Force member[28]
Rep. Al Adinolfi (R-103); Health and Human Services Task Force
Rep. Jason Perillo (R-113); Health and Human Services Task Force
Rep. Whit Bett (R-78); Health and Human Services Task Force
Rep. Penny Bacchiochi (R-52); International Relations Task Force[28]
Rep. Themis Klarides (R-114); Public Safety and Elections Task Force
Rep. Bill Aman (R-14); Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
Rep. Vincent J. Candelora (R-86); Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
Rep. Rosa C. Rebimbas (R-70); Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force
Rep. Christie Carpino (R-32); Civil Justice Task Force
Rep. David K. Labriola (R-131); Civil Justice Task Force
Rep. John T. Shaban (R-135); Civil Justice Task Force
Rep. Christopher Davis (R-57); Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
Rep. Christopher Coutu (R-47); Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
Rep. Dan Carter (R-2); Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
Rep. Fred Camillo, Jr. (R-151)[19]; Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
Rep. Gail Lavielle (R-143); Education Task Force
Rep. Michael Molgano (R-125); Education Task Force
Rep. Timothy LeGeyt (R-17); Education Task Force
Rep. Lawrence Miller (R-122)[19]; Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force