This Thanksgiving We Need Good Government

This Thanksgiving we as a nation are more angry than thankful. We have a problem; we are becoming more divided politically and economically. The only thing we seem to agree on, and 80 percent agree, the country is not headed in the right direction. Someplace things have gotten off the track and we don't like it one bit. The Tea Party Movement is the most vocal and specific reflection of that anger.

It isn't just the polls. It isn't just the downside of the economy. It isn't just the last couple of elections. And it isn't just a garrulous Tea Party's disaffection with the two political parties. Something fundamental about America has been and is still changing in ways that 80 percent don't like.

Americans have always thought of our country, our nation or whatever we are, as something different. We call this American Exceptionalism. We boldly print on our currency: Novus Ordo Seculorum, Something New under the Sun. We are a country with a mission, a destiny, playing a role of moral leadership and military preparedness in the protection of world peace and freedom.

Now there is doubt. This doubt has become anger as we've watched things go wrong and discovered that we are not always the good guys.

The tipping point, where things began to go wrong, came probably in the mid-1980s and is best exemplified by the garish, nationalistic Summer Olympics in Los Angeles which popularized the cry "USA-Number One!" Before that, "exceptional" meant different and not necessarily superior and we respected the other cultures of the world. Then, with globalization and all the other technological change, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were misled into an American triumphalism. We proudly proclaimed ourselves the sole global superpower.

We began to believe that we were, and should be recognized as, the best at everything: we were the richest, the most free and the most innovative people in the world. We had the best educational system, the best medical system, the greatest military, the most productive economy, and most importantly "We have the best form of government in the history of mankind."

You have to be in a profound state of denial to continue to believe all that. Industrial countries around the globe are rising in wealth even as we are stagnating. We are borrowing to buy what we used to produce. We are surrendering our freedoms to Patriot Act intrusions as we violate and abuse our Constitution. Our commanding lead in productive technology is shrinking. We no longer have the tallest buildings, the fastest trains or the highest growth rate.

America still has great universities but our elementary and secondary schools are at best a disappointment. A third of our population under age 65 was without health insurance for part of 2009. In 2010, we passed up an opportunity to create a great health-care system.

America may have "the best form of government in the history of mankind" but we are trashing it with partisan politics and personal meanness.

Most importantly, however, we have surrendered the moral high ground. We have declared our right to preemptive war, which is the act of infamy the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor. Even our worst enemies were shocked that we would not only torture but that we would publicly admit it and condone it.

If we as a people are going in the wrong direction, then our government failed us. The Tea Partiers are then right to be angry with government for a lack of political, economic and moral leadership. Both Democrats and Republicans, both Senate and the House stand accused by the results of the last two elections. No one is happy with any part of our government.

We as citizens are as guilty as our government. At that tipping point in the mid-80s, when everything was churning around us economically, politically and internationally, government was the only institution able to pull it all back together. Instead, we were told that the government "is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." We stopped trusting government. We lost our government at the point where we needed it most.

The anger that arises from that loss does not yet have an effective outlet. Smaller government, cuts in spending and deregulation are a refusal to face reality. In fact, government is our only way out. We tried a kind of center-right, small, deregulated government and it brought us crises. What we need is good government not less government.

Have a happy and hopeful Thanksgiving. At the same time, channel that anger into something constructive.