Role of Government

New York has proven that government can be a positive source for good and it still can be. I believe government's purpose basically is to allow those blessed with talent to go as far as they can on their own. But I believe that government also has an obligation to assist those who, for whatever inscrutable reason, have been left out by fate. The homeless, the infirm, the destitute to help provide those necessary things which through no fault of their own, they cannot provide for themselves. Of course, we should have only the government we need. But we must have and we will insist on all the government we need. So a technically balanced budget that fails to meet the reasonable needs of the middle class and the poor would be to us the emblem of hypocrisy. It has become popular in some quarters to argue that the principle function of government is to make instruments of war and to clear obstacles from the way of the strong. It is said that the rest will happen automatically. The cream will rise to the top, whether the cream be well-endowed individuals or fortunate regions of the nation. Survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, but a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order, one which tries to fill the crucial gaps left by chance and by a wisdom that we don't fully understand.

This is how we were warned it would be. President Reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social Darwinism, survival of the fittest. Government can't do everythng we were told. So it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest. Make the rich richer. And what falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those who were trying desperately to work their way into the middle class. You know, the Republicans called it trickle down when Hoover tried it. Now they call it supply side, but it's the same shining city for those relative few who are lucky enough to live in its good neighborhoods. But for the people who are excluded, for the people who are locked out, all they can do is stare from a distance.

We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need.  We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn't distort or promise to do things that we know we can't do.  We believe in a government strong enough to use words like love and compassion and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities. We believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order.