Reasonable people can disagree with what are the particular duties of government. I like what C. S. Lewis had to say about that in his book, Mere Christianity, “The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life.”
On November 3 we vote to fill all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats. Mississippi will elect its four House members and one of its two Senators, Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The Constitution gives Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court equal shares in governmental power assigning specific roles to each. To the President the Constitution assigns executive powers, which are fairly closely circumscribed. To Congress it assigns the law-making role and reigning in the President. It gives the Supreme Court the duty to be the final arbiter of the Constitution including interpretation, reviewing the legality of actions of the Congress and President, reviewing appeals of lower court rulings and setting legal precedents in the process.
None of the three branches has been acting as the Constitution requires. The President is completely ignoring it doing whatever he wants. Congress has utterly failed to do, really, anything, especially checking the power of the President. The Supreme Court has based some of its important, recent rulings on political grounds, not on the Constitution. All this ignoring and shirking have led to political, social, and economic chaos domestically and internationally.
Funding for many essential services for those in need has been stripped, especially for health care, for which three of our Representatives and both Senators voted. Remember that on Nov. 3. Mississippi is the least healthy and one of the most rural states. Mississippians should worry about cuts to access to health care, especially in rural areas. Other facets of the social safety net have also fallen to the Republican’s ax.
The Republicans currently holds what is known as the political trifecta, controlling the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Our government is failing us and the blame can only be laid at the feet of Republicans. Republican controlled government has not been making our lives better. In fact, their actions and inaction have only been making life worse for many of us.
Whatever else you think the government ought to be doing, most people would likely agree it ought to be defending the Constitution, upholding the rule of law, providing the set of public goods citizens require, providing for the common defense, and promoting social cohesion. Our current, Republican controlled government is not promoting and protecting the ordinary happiness of its citizens. Their failings are so far-reaching that voting against every Republican running for office is warranted. In my district, that means Cindy Hyde-Smith and Micheal Guest.
Patrick Taylor lives in Ridgeland.
