Obituary for a democracy

The Preamble of the Constitution is  straightforward in explaining the document's  and the nation's purpose

form a more perfect Union, 

establish Justice, 

insure domestic Tranquility, 

provide for the common defence, 

promote the general Welfare, 

and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

Those people who fret over the size of government ignore the goals of the Preamble.  If one is to take that sentence seriously,  our efforts should be to improve government and the implementation to achieve its goals,  not obsess over its size.  There is often much to decry in government.  Bureaucracies often are managed to accommodate the basest human motives.  Many operate as extensions off the pecking order model of social organization.  People get caught up in rivalries and resentment,  and spend more effort in competing for attention and undermining their perceived rivals than in carrying out the business of making government work.  The significant political question is not size of government,  but the honesty and competence of government in meeting its purpose.  Corporate bureaucracies in the private sector do not even put up the pretense of democratic values; they largely demonstrate human avarice and malice at its worse.  

The matters of the integrity and efficiency of government get lost in a debate over the meaning of "general welfare" that began when the Constitution was being written.  Madison thought that Constitution authorized only the power to levy taxes, not to get involved in anything not specified as a duty of Congress.  Hamilton took "general welfare" to require the exercise of responsibility for anything dealing with the well-being of the nation and its people.   Contemporary citations of the two interpretations define the motives behind the divide that separates the political factions in our nation.  The "conservatives" use limiting taxes as the pretext to designate part of the population as undeserving, to exclude them, denigrate them, and oppress them.  The conservative movement is misanthropic, regards equality, freedom, and justice as a privilege for its members only..  The "liberals"  regard general welfare as a mandate to see to the well-being of all people,  something the conservatives claim we cannot afford.

Healthcare is focal point that provides a stark contrast between people of good will and people of ill will.  As Bernie Sanders keeps reminding us,  the U.S. is the only major country in the world that does not provide healthcare to all its people as a right.  Furthermore,  the quality of healthcare in the United States ranks last compared to other leading countries.  The fact that a huge segment of the American people deny healthcare to those who cannot afford it defines the true moral state of the country.  And it is a moral state which is comparable to Nazi Germany.

The gas ovens of the Holocaust were not originally designed to kill Jews.  They were designed to kill the handicapped and disabled in German institutions because they were considered a financial burden.  They were among those Hitler called "useless eaters."  So that no money was wasted on the disabled and infirm,  they were fumigated with Zyklon.  The anti-healthcare Americans aren't as humane.  If people can't afford healthcare,  it is assumed, that they aren't working or are spending their money on frivolity,  and so deserve to get ill and die.  The moral wonders of America rally to save the unborn so they may enjoy the full benefit of knowing exclusion and oppression when they are out of the womb.  Then maybe they can understand the denial of equality, freedom, and justice that the GOP so fervently has prepared for them.  

The denial of healthcare is just one of the moral devices that is the Zyklon of our age. Another is the right of "law-enforcement"  to execute black people when they feel like it.  All they have to do  is say that they feel that their life is in danger.  Then, they can blast away,  The Obama administration made agreements with offending police departments to eliminate such abuse.  But the Trump administration under the orders of Attorney General Sessions will review those agreements to see if they infringe on the right to kill useless eaters.  

Admit it or not,  but many nations have been more successful in achieving the goals in the Preamble than the United States has.  While conservatives rage about following the Constitution,  the one they follow conspicuously omits the preamble.  When the Constitution states a national purpose to promote the general welfare, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and extend the benefits of liberty,  it is an affront to the right to hold and prosecute ill will, and it conflicts with the Second Amendment,  which is all that matters in the GOP mindset.  

But a savior has arisen to champion cause of ill will and abuse in Donald Trump.  Ill will reigns with full-throated triumph throughout the land:

 Our father  in Trump Towers 

 holler out your name,

 your companies come, 

 your will be done

with pussies grabbed 

on earth as in Mar-a-Lago.
Give us today our daily Tweet,

and take on great debt

and conveniently go bankrupt
And lead us not into liberalism

but deliver to us the joys of evil
For you are the corporation,

the abuse of power,

and the gory narcissist

for ever.

Democracy in America died an obscene death.  The city on the hill is on other shores.