I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, “Does the American Government Need Enemies?” After some consideration, a few glasses of wine, and deep soul searching about all the ne'er-do-wells who disagree with me, I think the answer is YES!
Granted, I’ve only been around for a little less than a third of our history as a constitutional republic, but as I consider our heritage it seems obvious, we are a nation built on having enemies -- both foreign and domestic.
Let’s review!
We, those of European heritage, fled to America to escape the oppression of those who viewed our forefathers (and mothers) as different and worthy of being cast out. We could have been the rubble of society Charles Dickens was so fond of writing about, or we could have had religious beliefs that caused concern with the various churches that ruled the Continent. But once we got here and made it through the first few winters, we vied with the natives to take control of the land we settled as if it were ours to take.
Those of us who came from African heritage clearly had enemies who captured and sold whole tribes of enslaved people who had no say in the matter and when they arrived in the colonies were sold to the highest bidders to do the manual labor necessary to open the land to the agriculture necessary to enrich those who had come from Europe.
As we grew, we English viewed the French and Spanish as our enemies, until we reached a point of domination or were able to buy the lands they claimed as their own.
Finally, even we English saw the tyranny of the English Parliament and King George as a threat to our freedom and fought to free ourselves from them.
As the Anglos moved into Texas, they saw the Spanish/Mexicans as a limiting influence, at least until they could declare their independence and become a Republic with the aspirations of joining the United States.
Along the way, we’ve fought wars, both domestically and internationally, about every 20 years or so since 1675. We’ve been in a continuous war since 2001 and although Afghanistan has ended (kind of) we are still engaged in several places.
The thing is, each war seems to grow the government and thereby increases the power of the politicians who swear allegiance to a political party. So, what better way to increase your political importance and financial wealth than to be a part of a government that is at war? The Johnson Administration serves as the perfect example of this concept.
The Kennedy administration came to office with the “Cold War” in full swing. It had its share of diplomatic blunders which took us to the brink of a “Hot War” with Russia but managed to avoid that as Russia blinked first. Some would say one of those blunders was the introduction of U.S. forces to bolster the regime of South Vietnam, a decision that would be carried forward when Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed the office upon JFK’s assassination.
So, what did LBJ do? He found a way to commit massive federal spending on three fronts. He grew the military to fight an increasingly costly war in Southeast Asia while fighting the “Cold Wars” in Korea and Europe. He then expanded a social welfare state to improve the lives of the poorest Americans in his “War on Poverty.” A lot of these efforts, if viewed objectively, succeeded in the same way the War in Vietnam succeeded. They seemed to be great ideas that only served to enrich the few who got to make the decisions on where federal dollars should go. Finally, in our race to prove capitalism was superior to communism we entered into the space race to the Moon. We won and as a result of all those federal dollars so did several defense/space contractors. Along the way, we got string cheese, Tang, and Velcro.
According to History Pieces in 1962, there were roughly 5.34 million federal employees. As the wars progressed under LBJ that number rose to 6.64 in 1968. This figure does not account for all those whose employment is dependent on Federal spending it is simply the size of our government during the decade of turbulence when the President decided war was the way to get what he wanted for the nation.
Today the federal government has a little more than 4 million employees, thanks mostly to a reduction in the size of the military, but thanks to social media we now see far more clearly than ever before how the politicians seek to divide the nation to achieve their political success. Having come to age in the 1960s I am firm of the belief this is a result of an education system that has transformed from one intended to create independent thinking of those most capable of it, into a system where groupthink has become the approved approach.
Because of this approach we’ve developed generations where differing political views are unacceptable, where bullies call out those who think differently and accuse them of being bullies, where racists defend their racism as anti-racism, and deviant lifestyles are glamorized and celebrated by the entertainment industry. An industry that was once viewed as only slightly more moral than horse thieves.
With this pandemic, we see clearly how the government wages war in its effort to consolidate power to the political elite. We also see how many are willing to sacrifice their rights to individual freedom in the hopes this government will make life risk-free.
In the end, I can only wonder, what happens when enough of us believe in a one-party political solution and the United States becomes like California?
