Government and The People

Many people mistakenly assume that the government and the people are one and the same. They are not. The government is an institution that derives its power from the people, but is entirely and necessarily separate and in some ways antagonistic to the people. So, when the government does something in the people's name remember it is not the people actually doing it, but the government.

Some will argue that the government is the people's representative, which is true, and therefore it represents the will of the people by definition, which is false. Although the government derives its power from the people and we vote to select our leaders, the voting process is a very inaccurate method of expressing the people's will. We vote for a candidate who has countless positions on issues. For example, few people who voted for Obama in the last election agreed with every one of his policy proposals.

Here is where some will say that lobbying your representatives through letter writing, etc allows you to more accurately express your will, which is true, and therefore some of the problems expressed above can be mitigate, which is partially true. However, the real question your representative is asking when they get a letter or phone call is -- how many votes with this cost/gain me in the next election?

So, while our republic is the best designed government on Earth, let's be honest that the institution of government is at best an imperfect representative of the people and at worst outright hostile to them.