Let's Be More Honest

After reading this piece by a lady named Ann Althouse (via realclearpolitics.com) I browsed the comment section and came across this:

When are these yutzes going to understand that it's not government that is responsible for America's greatness, it's its people? People have come here to live out their dreams and fulfill their fullest potential and that is what has been responsible for America's greatness. Our country has been great because, unlike many other countries, government got out of the way and let people do their thing.
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Why, oh why, are so many lefties infected with this ridiculous, and dare I say anti-American concept, that we work for the government and the only good possible in society comes through top-down government directives?

I've been hearing this more and more lately from the TV "news" channels to the blogosphere and it just strikes me as a completely illogical point to make. America tried as little government as they thought they could get away with and were so frustrated and so fed up with the stillness of a powerless government that they called a Constitutional Convention in order to overhaul, grow, and to use the rhetoric from back then as well as today "take over". The thing that the Founders understood best was that Government by its very nature is a self growing body. As new markets become available, new industries come into existence, as the population grows, so too does Government. What the Founders set out to do, after witnessing Europe and being extensive historians of the Roman Empire, was guarantee individual liberties without impeding the ability of successive Governments to form new branches of government or write new regulations for new industries or new laws for expanding legal issues.

The other counter point I'd make is that a Government can and should always be what the people make of it. The problem that conservatives, libertarians, liberals, progressives, moderates all have is that they all, at their core, have fundamental differences of opinions on the role of Government. This is why when one party is in power, you hear the other one use phrases like "ram down our throat" or "government is abandoning the poor and little people" or "government is taking over the country".

For better or worse, what all voters need to do, is recognize that the American voter voted for this Congress. The American people chose President Barack Obama. Maybe keeping that in mind we can stop talking about "when is D.C. going to listen to the American people?” It strikes me as about time the American people take a look in the mirror and ask themselves what as opposed to who they've been voting for all of these years and start accepting some of the blame for our hugely ineffective Federal Government.

P.S. ~ I know what the partisans are going to say so save it: "I didn't vote for Obama and these Democrats, this isn't my fault" or "I never voted for a Republican or President Bush, not my fault". Well, the country as a whole did.