restoring our collective faith
“My senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
That the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
Upon the meek the graces shower
It's decreed: The people rule” - Patti Smith
**The audio recording of this Morton Train is available to paid subscribers here.**
In my work as a secular chaplain, and along my journey of life, I’ve participated in many conversations on the topic of faith. Faith is often, of course, discussed in the context of religion or spirituality or belief in an unseen power. But frequently, when the word ‘faith’ shows up in a conversation, it’s actually in a secular context.
Like when we talk about having (or not having) faith in oneself, faith in another person, faith that "everything will work out,” faith that one’s efforts will pay off, faith in humankind, or faith in the future.
When we have faith in someone or something, or when someone puts their faith in us, there’s an inherent symbiosis that occurs. So when that faith is lost, when trust is broken, the symbiosis - that connection - is punctured. There’s a separation, a severing, and our defenses go up.
Today I’m thinking about our collective faith in government. By government, I don’t mean any specific politician or bureaucrat or political party. I’m referring to government itself, to the institutions themselves, to the role that government plays in our every day lives. Let’s face it, faith in government has been eroding for decades now.
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In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey’s family business, the Building & Loan, serves a unique role in the town of Bedford Falls. The business exists entirely for the public good and the people truly depend on it. The Building & Loan doesn’t seek to turn a big profit for a few shareholders or to exploit anyone it can or to acquire other businesses and dominate a marketplace. Its mission is simple: Provide folks with a safe place to save their money and give them opportunities to invest in their own betterment as well as the betterment of their community.
When Clarence the Angel shows George what Bedford Falls would be like without the Building & Loan, the town is strange and unfamiliar. It isn’t even called Bedford Falls anymore. It’s Pottersville, a crime-ridden place where people live lives of poverty and desperation while one man (Henry Potter) prospers as the town’s owner, overlord, and namesake. The people who thrived in Bedford Falls are hopeless and miserable in Pottersville. Without the Building & Loan, there is no social safety net in which to put their collective faith. There is no sense of community or appreciation of the common good.
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The short story that It’s a Wonderful Life is based on, called “The Greatest Gift,” was published in 1943, a decade into the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR’s New Deal was a big deal. It shifted people’s understanding of what government was capable of and who government was there to serve. Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, said, "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life."
So that administration outlawed child labor, guaranteed the right to unionize, created a national minimum wage and 40-hour work week. They regulated corrupt financial institutions, founded agricultural programs, created unemployment insurance and Social Security. They even made the government the employer of last resort. Meaning, for all those who were unemployed or underemployed during the Great Depression, the government put them to work. Through new institutions like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, citizens were hired to build a great variety of infrastructure and create culturally significant projects throughout the country that still benefit us today.
The New Deal was an enormous investment in the common good. It laid the groundwork for a thriving middle class that had never existed to that point.
Nick Taylor, author of American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, wrote about those citizens whom the government put to work: “These ordinary men and women proved to be extraordinary beyond all expectation. They were golden threads woven in the national fabric. In this, they shamed the political philosophy that discounted their value and rewarded the one that placed its faith in them, thus fulfilling the founding vision of a government by and for its people.”
Not only did the people have faith in their government during that era, the government also had faith in its people. The New Deal put into practice what Senator Paul Wellstone would articulate so well: “We all do better when we all do better.”
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For my entire lifetime, we Americans have undergone both subtle and overt anti-government indoctrination. We have been propagandized to hate, to distrust, to scoff at government itself. To view it as inept, thoroughly corrupt, and - in some cases - even unnecessary. This was quite purposeful:
If we have no faith in government, we won’t expect anything from it and the corporate lobbies can get everything they want. If we are cynical about government, we won’t participate in it or even pay attention. If we despise government, we’ll support the deregulation and privatization and tax breaks that only benefit oligarchs and giant enterprises.
There was President Reagan’s infamous message, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the Government and I'm here to help.” And Grover Norquist’s sentiment of wanting to get government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
Paul Weyrich, known as “the founding father of the conservative movement,” referred to people who believed in good government as having the “goo goo syndrome.” “They want everybody to vote,” he said. “I don’t want everybody to vote. Our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Here we are now at the pinnacle of anti-government mania with Elon Musk literally wielding a chainsaw and using so-called D.O.G.E. to destroy the very institutions that provide any of that pesky regulation to his companies. He cannot seem to comprehend that government serves a different purpose than a transnational corporation.
We also have Russell Vought, far from acting as a civil servant, as the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. This is the guy who said, “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work. Because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”
It’s crystal clear to us now. The gang of thugs that’s usurped government actually despises government. The foxes haven’t only infiltrated the hen house, they have set it on fire.
***
Millions of us Americans participated in the “Hands Off!” protests and rallies around the country on April 5th. Perhaps my favorite sign that was spotted in those crowds stated boldly, “It was the fuckaroundest of times. It was the findoutest of times.”
We are indeed living through a time in this country’s history where the corrupt forces are so brazen and shameless and dominating that We The People cannot look away or deny it any longer.
But just as we are recognizing our complete lack of faith in the current administration to serve the public good in any way, we are also growing and renewing our faith in what government can be. These widespread protests and galvanizing town halls and passionate “fighting oligarchy” crowds are signs that a faith revival is sweeping the nation.
We The People aren’t buying the anti-government propaganda anymore. We are viscerally recognizing (and remembering) that government as an entity is there to protect and serve the common good. From the federal courts to the National Parks to Medicare, we are reclaiming the government and its many institutions and social programs as ours.
In the last scene of It’s a Wonderful Life, all the townspeople show up at the Bailey house to rescue the Building & Loan and to express their gratitude for it. There is genuine joy in that coming together of community, in that recognition of mutual care and interdependence.
I am witnessing that joy in our citizenry today. Aren’t you?
President Roosevelt said in a 1936 speech, “We seek not merely to make Government a mechanical implement, but to give it the vibrant personal character that is the very embodiment of human charity.”
Now that’s something to put our collective faith in.
Thank you, Liz! Here is to creating a faith that is awake!