After years of feeling that there is something just not right with their country, Americans are beginning to put their sense of unease into actions.

It started on the right with the tea party and its message that government is too big, too expensive and too intrusive and needs to be reined in.

It has now spread to the left with the occupy movement and its message of getting money out of politics and making sure our elected representatives are answerable to the people and not their moneyed backers.

I suspect that both groups are correct, at least in part.

The problem, as usual in America, is money and government’s control of money.

For too long, we allowed our elected officials to view themselves as our leaders and not our representatives. For too long, we have looked for government to ensure that if we fail, it had our backs.

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By doing away with the consequences of failure, we lost the potential of success and became too dependent. We lost our sense of what we could be, if we worked at it.

The solution will be with each of us. We must stop sitting around waiting for the next stimulus. We must stop being jealous of someone who has more and go and earn more for ourselves. We must stop waiting for some career politician to solve all our problems.

It is time for government to get out of the way and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic of America. This will only be possible if we follow Mark Twain’s advice when he said: “Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason.”

We will get real change only by getting rid of all of the current elitist, career politicians.

 

Greg Theriault, Skowhegan


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