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1. When people say that Americans don't trust their government, that doesn't make much sense to me. Most Americans I know put a glass under the faucet and drink it down without testing the water themselves to see if it's safe.
2. Most Americans I know drive 70 miles down the highway with the confidence that they won't suddenly hit an enormous hole in the road that will break their axle and send them hurtling off the road.
3. Most Americans I know put their seatbelt on when they get in the car (which almost no one did in 1970) because they trust the government that determined that wearing seatbelts is a good idea, and we've consented to that government's laws that encourage seatbelt use.
4. Most Americans I know who use commercial airlines do so with great confidence that their plane will not collide with another during take off or landing.
5. Most Americans I know eat meat and vegetables that come from who knows where, yet they stick the stuff in their mouths without a second thought because it's (theoretically) been inspected by government regulators.
6. Most Americans I know who have employer provided health insurance are not worrying about where they'll get their health coverage after they retire. Nor are they saving frantically for a time after retirement when they'll have zero income. Because they trust Medicare and SSA.
7. Most Americans I know use paper money, backed only by the authority of the US Gov't, without even blinking an eye. When handed change at a store, they don't inspect it to see if it's *really* worth what it says on the money.
8. I could go on, but you get the point. Americans distrust *politicians,* especially since Tricky Dick took his turn in the spotlight. But in myriad ways, in our daily lives, we have tremendous trust in our government.
9. Does that government sometimes betray our trust? Sure. Does that government sometimes do stupid things that are worth criticizing and trying to change? Of course.
10. But in any modern society, there will always be institutions that do important work for us and which we need to function well so that we can trust them. I can't inspect my own spinach, monitor the roads, test the air, etc. Unless you live off the grid, you need this help too.
11. It is this work of making modern life relatively safe & manageable that the governmental institutions that have come into existence in the past 100 or so years are designed to do. And it is this regulatory apparatus that the conservative movement has long sought to unwind.
12. This movement has capitalized on our longstanding hatred of politicians (an age old hatred) and projected it onto the institutions of government that are staffed not by politicians, but by professionals.
13. Remember Reagan's famous aphorism about the most frightening words in the English language? "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." Do we think the Little Rock kids thought that when they saw the National Guard pull up?
14. Do we think coal miners thought that when their black lung benefit check arrived? Do we think pilots think that every time they communicate with an air traffic controller? Do we think that when the fire department shows up?
15. Again, this is not just a blanket celebration of the American state. Like all big institutions, it often screws up and is in constant need of revision and oversight.
16. But America is not yet a failed state, and largely because so many parts of our government continue to merit our trust, even though such mechanisms are often invisible to us...like water, or air, or smooth roads, or the FDIC...
17. The irony, of course, is that it is the "super-patriotic" conservatives who today most despise the government that does this important work. They elected a President who has promised to dismantle as much of that state as possible, both its institutions and its norms.
18. Next time you go to DC, pay attention to all of those big hulking buildings where millions of people work. This administration is doing its best to drain the life out of those buildings and to weaken the trust that American citizens have in the institutions housed therein.
19. Whether or not we admit it or are aware of it, most of us have great trust in those largely invisible institutions and the work they do that underpins our daily lives. We rarely notice they're there, but we'll sure notice it when they're gone. Especially us little folks.
20. Ok, that's enough for this Ted Talk...which was basically an approximation of the Ted Talk that Michael Lewis would give if he gave Ted Talks. You should read his book. It's really important. amazon.com/Fifth-Risk-Mic…
