The sentiments expressed in the headline are those of Andy Kessler, an opinion columnist for The Wall Street Journal. That's Kessler, pictured above. My headline, on today's blog posting, is the headline on Kessler's column in The Journal, published on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Kessler's main point in his column isn't, actually, any significant opposition to the "presidency," at least the way I read it. His point appears to be that "limited government lets the private sector flourish." That idea, of course, is certainly an idea that is consistent with the general thrust of The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages, and it might not be terribly unfair to suggest that Kessler, and The Journal, could actually be thinking along the lines of: "Government, I'm Against It."
However, being against "government" isn't in the interests of the military contractors, fossil fuel companies, other massive corporations, and the extremely rich people who are the powers that we have let loose on American soil, and who believe that government's main assignment is to make them all "flourish," to make them rich, and richer, and to keep them that way, and who look to The Wall Street Journal to advance that agenda.
I have friends who look at the United States government, dominated by the wealthy private interests listed above, and other, similar, private interests, and who believe "nothing can be done."
I am not of the "nothing can be done" frame of mind. Ultimately, is is "our" government, and if we have let it get away from us (and we have), it's going to take a lot of extra effort to regain our proper place.
And here's where I might have something nice to say about Kessler's headline. To the degree that we are hoping that some "President" is going to save us, and that the right president will put ordinary people back in charge, as we ought to be, we are fooling ourselves. That vision of the presidency? I'm against it.
Amazingly, lots of ordinary people think that Donald J. Trump is going to be able to restore government to the ordinary people if he is elected in November. Those supporting President Biden have similar views that he, not Trump, will be able to do it. We focus a LOT of our attention on the presidency.
Not that the presidency isn't important. It is. But I continue to think that any successful effort to regain "self-government," and to restore our government to those whom it is supposed to represent, will begin from the "bottom up," and is not going to be accomplished from the "top down." Review this recent blog post (which starts out with a discussion of Artificial Intelligence) if you need more help with this idea.
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