Back Again and with a Rant

Want to get back to this blogging thing.  I actually miss it.  Facebook is so quick and easy that it has taken over, but let's face it.  You can keep track and do things with more explanation here than there.

What better way to start than with a soapbox style rant regarding the elections.  You've been warned! 

Our kids don't go to school on election day.  They use the schools for polling places and the parking and lines etc. that voting creates makes it very difficult to conduct school.  So on Monday, Sammy came home telling me about the class activities they did regarding the elections.  Sammy is in 2nd grade so it was typical 2nd grade stuff.  At one point they went around the class and said what they would do if they were President.  In predictable 2nd grade fashion, the answers became increasingly fantastic from vending machines to deal with forgotten snacks to installing a pool for swimming during P.E.  The activity seems right on track with a second grade class.  I myself had an 8th grade class write a classroom constitution once.

When watching the news later I saw some individuals in New York talking about the efforts to deal with the superstorm that blew through a week ago.  One woman begged President Obama to send his truck and get her power back on.  She wept and couldn't understand why the President wouldn't get her power back on.  It was a powerful comparative moment for me.  I will acknowledge upfront that my views on the limits of government aren't necessarily the same as others.  For me, however, I was a bit floored by the acknowledgement that not much development happens between that second grade lesson and that adult moment.

In short, when our kids are young we ask what they would do if the President and they have fantastical and sometimes even silly answers and it never dawns on them that the President can't do anything he or she wants to.  The President of United States can do anything right?  That certainly is the perception of most 7 and 8 year olds.  However, I don't think we do much between that point and adulthood to correct that perception.  I felt terribly for that woman in NY.  There is a lot going on here to help residents and schools in New York and New Jersey who lost so much in that storm.  Still, it rocked me a bit that she would think that the President had the ability to turn her power back on like it was something that could happen like that if he would simply decide to do it. 

It isn't just the storm relief effort either.  I find an astonishing amount of adult Americans who don't have a concept of the limits of government or the separation of powers and certainly not of the concept of federalism (which powers belong to the state and which to the federal government).  I find it remarkable that very few seem to question the President's ability to do anything he or she wants to do let alone bother to extend that questioning to what SHOULD the President of the United States be able to do.  It is no wonder we as a nation expect a President to be the source of all reform, of all legislation, of everything, and it is no wonder that we fail to react outside of political wonks like myself when a member of government blatantly does something they shouldn't be able to do.

It is no small feat creating a government, and we have a wealth of debate and discussion at our disposal to understand the struggles in determining what our government could and should do.  As a result, I find it sad that we don't bother to ask those questions anymore and accept a rather elementary view of the job and role of the President instead.