This post is from Dear Old Dad, who had no idea he was blogging when he was talking to me on the phone the other day.

I was watching the news the other night, and all these republicans were explaining why Bush had to veto the child healthcare bill. They all sat in a row and said “… but it would be Government health care …” and each time they did they would wrinkle up their noses to indicate disgust. And, I thought, when did the notion of government become such a bad thing? Look around at countries without governments … look at Myanmar, look at the Darfur, look at Iraq, where we went in and ripped out the government. They are not doing so well. Live is not so good there. It is not such a bad thing to have a functioning government.

Well, there you have it. There are a number of ways you could go with this. You could take the Bradshaw approach and wonder about those government politicians who think government is a bad thing. Just what are they doing in the job then? They must hate themselves, must have wicked self-esteem issues. And you know where that leads …

Or you could go look at the constitution, which says (I checked) that “We the people” established the constitution to “promote the general welfare”, among other things.

General Welfare … Public Good … Hey guys, however you say it, the purpose of the government is to look out for us, provide a collective mechanism to do things we need that we cannot do individually.

Maybe these republicans are wrinkling their collective noses because they realize they are unable or unwilling to serve the public any more. Or maybe they just find it distasteful. All those common, needly little people grubbing about in their ordinary little lives.

Or I could just leave it alone, cause Dear Old Dad usually puts it pretty well.