A Reply to Bryan Fischer

The following is a reply I made to a post by  Paul Day, on the topic of Bryan Fischer.  The posting in full can be viewed HERE.  Mr. Fischer is under the impression that taking care of Americans isn't the job of the US government.  We should simply help each other. 

For those that don’t know what the Social Contract is, let me lay it out in very simple terms- partly because I don’t know how much I can type here, and partly because it’s late/early (depending on the frequency of yawns). In short, it’s the idea that the members of a community give up certain things, in order to get back other things that are important. A simplistic example is that we give up the right to kill another human, and support a criminal justice system that in part will also hold someone else accountable when they kill a person. This is a good job for a government, because when we filled that need on a private level, we ended up with lots of pitchforks, mobs and innocence lost. We give up money and rights for the betterment of the society we live in.
As the member of a Nation-State known as the United States of freakin America, I understand that this particular Nation has many responsibilities not only in domestic affairs, but internationally. However, on the domestic side, nothing cuts to our core as two fundamental needs we have. They are the two things we ask for more than any other, in this social contract that we have with our government.

Protect us.
Help us, when we need it.

The implications of “protect us” can get complicated, but luckily for me, I’m only speaking to the latter requirement. “Help us, when we need it” isn’t particularly complicated. If I don’t have a home, please help me find shelter. If I’m hungry, please help me with a meal. If I can’t find work (which often leads to a lack of shelter and meals) then I’m not asking for you to make a job and give it to me if I don’t earn it, but simply help me find work, and I’ll take it from there. With the exception of an occasional oddball, I don’t know many people that are poor, that don’t want to not be poor. People want to take care of themselves and earn a day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Sometimes they need a hand to help them up when they fall down; they don’t want someone to carry them.

Now, the question here is what is the best way to do this? If the best way is from people supporting people, then I’m all in. I have no problem with each of us helping out others in our community. But I don’t think most people grasp the concept that it’s not even close to the most effective way to help others. It’s not, because of our particular type of government. Every two, four, or six years, we hand out pink slips, or our stamp of approval, to the members of the Legislative and Executive branches of our government. It should be the defining characteristic of each member to make sure that they are meeting the two core aspects of our requirements. Protect us, and help us, when we need it.

If this government really is one made of, by and for the people, then how did we get to a place where we accept the “of” the people, “by” the people, but forgo the concept of “for” the people? We did so, with people like Bryan Fischer. I venture to guess that if you were to sit down 100 of his listeners, and ask them to define socialism, fascism, totalitarianism, communism, social contract, and then highlight major aspects of Dodd-Frank, TARP, the American Jobs Act, then most would receive a failing grade. Most don’t know what these terms mean, but they flock to Fisher and folks like him, as this group of opportunists remove the need to understand what those things are, and replace that need with emotions about which ones they should be scared of.