“If
the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to
protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.” – Barack
Obama, August 28, 2006
I am trying to think of a time when the federal government was distrusted more.
The era leading up to the Civil War surely comes to mind. The deep enmity
between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery pushed the
latter into secession. In retrospect, only war could have settled it.
The
protests against the Vietnam War went on for years, but it was not an issue of
trust, but of policy. They forced Lyndon Johnson to forego running for office
again and continued through Nixon’s first term. It was Watergate, however, that
raised the issue of trust and it was focused on the White House.
Nor
can I recall a time when a matrix of revelations about government, i.e.
executive branch, policies
