Paul Sassone

The attack on Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice has elicited a great deal of soul searching: Why is our political climate so toxic and what can be done to improve it?

I’m sure many factors contribute to the prevalent feeling that our political opponents are not just in error, but are bad people.

I’d like to mention one such factor — the war many Americans have declared on government, particularly the federal government.

Hostility to the federal government has always simmered in our body politic. But it’s hardening into a political philosophy may be traceable to President Ronald Reagan who, speaking of then economic conditions said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”

Reagan used the power of the federal government frequently and often effectively. So, he was not advocating emasculating the federal government. What he wanted was cuts, cuts in spending, cuts in income and capital gains taxes and cuts in business regulations.

But Reagan’s nuances were lost on his political heirs, who believe the federal government endangers our political liberty. They want to drain as much power as they can from the federal government. And

political leaders who think this way now control the presidency, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. The pace of cutting government spending — at least for programs and regulations that

assist the needy, the middle class — is picking up speed.

Opposed to this are political leaders who see an active federal government as what prevents real suffering by those affected by the shrinking of the federal government.

The clash of these opposite camps has escalated in intensity. The result is polarization and a loathing of the other side as not only wrong, but dangerous.

Is there a remedy? I don’t know.

But I would ask all of us to pause and consider. Consider that the federal government is not — or need not be — an enemy.

Most of the liberties and freedoms we enjoy — such the right to vote, freedom of speech and religion, the right to bear arms and so many others — come from and through the federal government. The federal government is the guarantor of our rights.

It would be a giant step forward if we could all realize the importance of the federal government.

Of course, we would still debate the best ways to make government serve America.

But an agreement on basics would, I hope, help dissipate some of the political toxicity that now chokes us.

—Government does not need to be the enemy–