"All men are created equal." -- Declaration of Independence
It's time to trim government, say Republicans, as they have insisted for many decades. It's time to cut back on government aid, they add, especially to those who don't deserve it, because this only takes away from families who have earned their wealth over many generations, and prevents them from passing it on to their own friends and family.
Some in this legion say the best government is no government. Barring that extreme, they would settle for minimal government, with only a few representatives to control the larger population.
Been there, done that.
In other nations, it's called a dictatorship. In America, it was called government by a few to represent the many. In the beginning of the republic, voting was limited to the few white men. Enslaved Blacks and women were not included, as were those who could not pass the designated literacy test. But in many parts of the nation, the reading test was used mainly against former slaves. Others were often not tested, and were free to vote even as their literate friends helped them with their ballots.
In his time, Henry David Thoreau referred to ordinary citizens. But in more modern times, business executives used the same theory to support their demand that government leave them alone so they can deal with workers as they chose.
They often paid workers as little as they chose, and demanded high prices for groceries at company-owned stores. Result: Workers wound up in debt to their employer, with the danger of losing their jobs and being unable to find another as executives passed the word of any protest.
In defense of their own interests, workers united.
Now we are engaged in great civil unrest, testing whether this nation can long endure the treatment of the many by the few who put their own interests above that of the nation as an independent whole.
Will the nation endure?
Stay tuned.
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