When did you stop defending your government?

It’s a simple question. I suppose I should have expected people to answer, “What do you mean?”, or “I never did.” but frankly it never occurred to be that I’d get one of those responses. In fact until I sat down to write this I hadn’t even thought about the possibility. Now that I do, I’m surprised to say no one did.

The question occurred to me as I was trying to take my mind off my aching back under the watchful eyes of nurse Zheng who had warned me, “Don’ta move.” When was it that I had stopped defending my government’s actions? It was something I had always been ready to do with all my heart when friends in foreign lands asked why the USA did the things they disagreed with. There were always plausible explanations and logical lines of reason. But, I realized, I no longer had the will nor the logic to defend what was happening today.

I decided the point at which I could no longer find the substance to mount a defense was somewhere around the passage of the stimulus bill. It simply made no sense, did not have public support, and showed no signs of a positive impact. When the health insurance takeover passed, not only was the will gone, but the faith that this feeling would pass had left me. After day 80 of the oil spill and my trip to Navarre I could see that people were suspect of their government, that even truth from Washington was questioned as would be loyalty from a traitor.

It seemed to me to be an interesting question to pose to people and so I did. To make conversation I would ask, “When did you stop defending your government?” expecting to segway into the political topic du jour. What I found was that to a man everyone had a direct answer. “When I was asked what the definition of ‘is’ is.”, “When Obama won the primary.”, “When Bush said ‘mission accomplished’”. Though by and large most cited some event in the pat 2-4 years, there was one white haired fellow who surprised me. “When Kennedy pulled out the air support during the Bay of Pigs.”

This was an enlightening endeavour and one that had more than a few surprises. What was very startling was that no one, not one single person, hesitated or suggested that they would still defend their government. The natural sequel is, “What would have to happen for you to begin trusting your government again?” Maybe I’ll wait till after the elections to ask that question.