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Whether the relationship is personal, such as a marriage, or corporate, or governmental, when trust is broken the relationship is imperiled. Many marriages are jeopardized because of infidelity. Some are able to reconcile. Few are ever the same. Corporations see their franchises damaged when they abuse their customer’s trust. Wells Fargo nearly ruined its franchise in 2016 when it established thousands of fake accounts without informing its clients. Crashes of Boeing 737-800s in 2018-19 almost certainly would have finished the airline maker were it not for the fact there are only 2 large airplane manufacturers in the world. More recently, Disney decided to test the loyalty of its customer base by choosing to emphasize the LGBTQ+ community in every form of its entertainment portfolio. The jury is out as to how parents, and grandparents, will react to the threat this policy creates for their children. While these are important . . .

I’m going to focus on the serious lack of trust that is growing between Americans and our government. I can only think of three reasons why the leaders of our government might choose to threaten the trust of its citizens. The first is that they can’t help themselves. They are simply inveterate liars who are dishonest people. I think this exists, but only to a limited extent. Second, they don’t think we are intelligent enough to know they are lying. They have a very low opinion of their constituents. This, I believe, is more pervasive. Finally, they are willing to do anything to remain in power. I think this is the major reason our elected representatives, and bureaucrats, continue to be dishonest. They don’t concern themselves about losing trust because of the second reason I listed previously. Democrats are comforted by the fact that the media will not call them out. This actually hurts them because it encourages them to be dishonest. The leaders of both parties in D.C., and the upper echelons of state government, would be wise to wake up. The growing lack of citizen trust in our government is nearing a breaking point. A complete break of trust will not end well for them, or for us.

When times are good we don’t spend much time concerning ourselves with the obfuscations emanating from the officials of our state, and federal governments. And times have been pretty good for quite a long time. It is important that we not lose sight of one important fact. Our government doesn’t lie! It is the people we elect, and the people they appoint, who are responsible for threatening the critical trust that must exist between us and our government. We must do a better job of electing honest people.

Breeches of the public trust are not new. If you are as old as me you have seen a President resign because of Watergate, and the Iran Contra scandal. There was the Keating Five scandal. It involved 5 Senators who were accused of interfering with an investigation into the wrongdoing of the Chairman of a savings and loan who had donated over $1 million dollars to their campaigns. We watched in disbelief as hundreds of members of Congress were caught writing thousands of bad checks, without being penalized, during the House Banking scandal. We saw a sitting President take sexual advantage of a young female intern, then lie about it. Thousands of young soldiers were killed and disabled searching for weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist. Since the second Bush administration left office it seems the frequency, and severity, of untruths have increased.

Over the last 24 months Americans have done things I never would have believed they would do. The COVID pandemic gave government apparatchiks the cover they needed to grab unconstitutional power. First they closed places of worship amid little resistance from parishioners, or their faith leaders. Choosing to err on the side of caution, the government locked our children out of school. Most of us, initially, thought that made sense. After months of data gathering, the “science” suggested our children were the least likely to get, and die from, COVID. The CDC said that schools were the safest place for our kids. Powerful teacher unions insisted it was unsafe. The government threw away the “science” in favor of one of its largest campaign donors, and sided with the unions. Our most precious assets continued to be harmed for months, as the schools remained closed. Businesses were closed forever, as people lost their life savings. The government falsified COVID statistics. We knew early on that those at greatest risk of dying from COVID were the elderly who had one or more co-morbidity(ies). Yet the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, forced nursing homes to accept, or reaccept, seniors who had a history of the disease. To this day they refuse to report the number of people who died in nursing homes, or were sent to hospitals from nursing homes. We watched helplessly as our relatives were forced to die alone, unnecessarily, in hospitals and nursing homes.

Until recently, most Americans considered the FBI to be one of our most trusted government agencies. Over the last 5 years it has done nothing but tarnish its reputation. The Director of the FBI obfuscated and leaked information. Members of the Bureau worked behind the scenes to affect the 2016 election. Members lied about documents they presented to the FISA Court. Directors of multiple security agencies lied, under oath, to Congress. We recently learned that the FBI may have been involved in instigating the kidnapping attempt of the Governor of Michigan. Parents uncovered a nationwide effort by educators to indoctrinate our kids with Critical Race Theory, and transgender education. Of course our government schools denied it. In an effort to intimidate those parents, the Dept. of Justice ordered the FBI to surveil parents who were speaking out for their children. The parents were called potential domestic terrorists.

Our government tells us that our southern border is secure as we watch unprecedented numbers of people cross illegally into our country. Our government tells us that soaring gasoline and food prices are the fault of the Russians. Only fools and ideologues believe that. But they keep on telling us anyway. Members of Congress continue to profit on stocks they have direct influence over. They feign innocence because they say, “we live in a free market.” The American people know it is at least wrong, perhaps illegal. Our government has so poisoned the election process that a significant number of Americans won’t trust it, regardless of the outcome.

We are not being fooled. We know that our government is making conscious decisions to deceive us. If the government believes that trust is essential in a relationship, it had better do a few focus groups outside of the D.C. beltway. Trust is not something that’s bestowed on government officials. It must be earned. Government needs to start listening to the little people. What will happen when another pandemic finds its way here? Will the people take the government seriously? Why should we? The American people are tired of being lied to. We are tired of being taken advantage of. People in the very highest places in government need to understand there is a point beyond which a broken trust cannot be repaired. There may come a time when the American people decide the lack of trust in their government can no longer be solved at the ballot box. I hope you found this post informative and thought provoking. If so, please tell your friends about it. Thank you, Bob