Uncle Sam Needs Marriage Counseling

The poll results jumped off the screen like a lion pouncing on its prey…

“82% of Americans believe that the system is corrupt” the headline virtually shouted. By “the system”, the poll takers meant the government of the United States of America.

In other words, the vast majority of Americans no longer trust Uncle Sam or believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.

When did this mistrust of everything and everyone inside the nation’s capital begin?

Maybe the first crack in the dam appeared when President Dwight Eisenhower was forced to go on national TV and tell the American people that the previous story about Francis Gary Powers was a government-fabricated lie. No, he wasn’t piloting a “weather plane” that went off course and as a result, was shot down over the Soviet Union. In actuality, Powers was a CIA-trained U2 pilot on a classified spy mission, using a top-secret high-altitude camera to take pictures of Soviet military installations.

His capture, interrogation, and trial were an embarrassment to the Eisenhower administration at the height of the Cold War and left Uncle Sam with some serious egg on his face.

The next (and much larger) crack was actually a series of half-truths and whole lies told by the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations about U.S. involvement in Vietnam. By the time the 20-year conflict – which began shortly after the 1954 Geneva Convention divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel – was over, the United States had lost its first-ever war and much of its international prestige.

Then came Watergate, which combined a botched burglary with an even more botched coverup. As the truth unraveled the lies, there was nothing for Richard Nixon to do but to become the first president in American history to resign in disgrace.

As he stood waving his arms on the steps on Marine One, it was almost as if Nixon was waving goodbye to the once trusting relationship between the federal government and the people it was elected or appointed to serve.

It’s no wonder that one of the reasons Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976 was because he promised never to lie to the American people. Of course, Carter forgot to tell us that he was also a micro-managing naval engineer who simply wasn’t up to the task of governing a nation of (then) 225 million people, especially at a time when the world was in turmoil.

The Iran-Contra Affair under Ronald Reagan certainly didn’t help matters nor did the weapons of mass destruction rationale used by George W. Bush to justify the Gulf War. Sandwiched between those incidents was the infamous “I never had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” denial by Bill Clinton that cost him his law license and almost his presidency, as he followed in Andrew Johnson’s 130-year-old footsteps on his way to impeachment by the House but acquittal by the Senate.

That brings us to Fast and Furious under Barack Obama, and the influence peddling schemes under Geritol Joe that lined the pockets of virtually every member of the Biden Family Crime Syndicate.

Say what you want about Donald Trump, but when you have a net worth of $5.1 billion and really don’t care what other people think about you, you are less likely to tell boldface lies. In fact, the hot water President Trump often finds himself in usually comes from being brutally honest and upfront with the press, the public, and the political animals that live and lurk inside the Washington beltway… something that they are simply not used to.

Whether the genie can be put back in the bottle and trust can be restored between the federal government and We the People remains unknown, but the odds are long… and aside from a nationwide spiritual revival, I don’t see it happening.

Sadly, the situation too closely resembles a marriage in which one spouse has repeatedly – and without remorse – cheated on the other. At some point, you just have to divide up the assets and go your separate ways.

But then again, divorce really isn’t a viable option between Uncle Sam and his oft-abused constituents, so it’s off to marriage counseling we go. I suggest that House Speaker Mike Johnson act as the mediator and Rev. Franklin Graham be our in-house spiritual advisor. They are both men of faith and whereas Johnson knows how to build consensus and broker deals, Graham through his work with Samaritan’s Purse has boots-on-the-ground experience in crisis management.

Something tells me we are going to need the skill sets of both men – coupled with a boatload of prayer – to make this marriage work. But after 249 years of blood, sweat, tears, and shared experiences, it’s certainly worth a try.

We owe that much to our Founding Fathers who forged this marriage… to the patriots whose blood preserved it… and to the future generations who will someday inherit it.