l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 Charlie’s doing us all a favor and explaining simply what’s happening in
DC:
As clearly as any issue you could name, the debate over the US debt ceiling
exposes the radically different governing philosophies held by Democrats and
Republicans.
On the left it is taken as an article of faith that government must
constantly grow and increase its sphere of influence as a counter to the
power of private corporations, and to provide a constantly-growing safety
net for Americans living at the margins.
On the right it is taken as an article of faith that government must
dramatically shrink in order to correct the decades-long diminution of
personal liberty and the strangulation of free enterprise that threatens to
undo all that is best about the American experiment.
At stake are the most cherished and bedrock beliefs of both sides. So how
can there be any compromise? Either government continues to grow and our
national indebtedness increases, a defeat for the right, or government
growth is checked for the first time since the New Deal, a precedent that
would be anathema to the left.
We have a divided government because we have a divided country. Government
isn’t broken; it is merely the most public face of the radical
philosophical differences that can be found in any Main Street café in
America.
If we were debating abortion rights or NAFTA instead of indebtedness, each
side would be equally entrenched, equally unwilling to compromise, because
each side holds a mutually exclusive vision of what American values and
American government should be.
This great legislative battle is exactly how a great debate should happen in
this country, and is the exact consequence of electing representatives who
take to Washington the viewpoints of their states and neighborhoods. The
high stakes and dire consequences should the two sides fail to reach an
agreement is entirely appropriate given the opposite views each side holds
on the fundamental purpose of government. |
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