Introduction
In Search of Self Governance, by Scott Rasmussen, is a book that reflects on the broken America political system. The author of this book manages to capture the heartbeat of the nation through his timely surveys which he has used to make a thought- provoking masterpiece about self government. The book is an advocacy about how people should govern themselves. This book vividly points out the big divide between the people and their leaders. The Americans and their leaders have a big disconnect and the people are very angry with the way they are being governed. According to the author, the Americans do not want to be moved from the left to the right and to the centre by their leaders, they want to govern themselves. The book extrapolates the big desire for self government by the Americans which he says, runs vey deep. Self government is a core value that Americans cherish and it seems to be a component of their cultural identity (Rasmussen 23).
Principles of Self Governance
Rasmussen, in the book makes it clear that self governance is not just about political and the political systems of government. It is not about the usual and the ordinary partisan gimmicks of the Republicans and the Democrats. It means more than democracy and the civil liberties that the Americans cherish. He notes that it is very unfortunate that the United States of America has been independent for more than 200 years, yet the values of self government has not been essentially realized. One of the factors that the author claims undermines the value of self governance is the immoral alliance between the government and the business sector. This is because this alliance has affected how the Americans live, how they make their choices at home workplace and in the entire community, and how they respond to many other things outside the political world. The author, who is a public opinion pollster, claims that political polarization in America is one of the other hindrances to self governance. This is because Americans see things from only two views; the Republican and the Democratic (Rasmussen 45). This has really divided Americans very much and under this great political division are some other sub divisions. This is because Americans are also divided along races, economic class, education achievement, business, religion and philosophical ideals. Though the Americans appear divided, they have a rich national heritage that unites them. This is the heritage that is found on the principles of liberty freedom and the belief that the people are in charge of their rulers. He adopts the Kantian ideology of governance. Immanuel Kant philosophized that the leader is the servant of the led and the people have the responsibility to rule their rulers (Walker 78). The United States of America may be one of the best places to live in this world, according to the author, but the influence that the leaders have on the people usually affects the quality of their lives. The author claims that the Kantian philosophy of leadership is yet to manifest itself in the United States of America because the people have not managed to be the masters of their rulers. The power that the people have on their rulers is minimal and this is one of the factors that have impeded the development of the values of self governance in this country.
Rasmussen claims that there is a lot of political interference that has managed to polarize the country in a way that divides the public. The leaders have managed to use they divide and rule tactics to place themselves on top of the people thus denying the countries they chance to benefit from the values of self governance. This has led to the development of a morally corrupt political system that is not afraid of the check and balances that are supposed to come from the people because the political elite has divided and blinded the public, which is not able to easily see the rot in the establishment. This has led to the breakdown of the political system and compromised the rich heritage of liberty that the Americans have. Therefore, most Americans believe that the political establishment in the country is broken and few have faith in the governance systems after which has staged a coup to ensure that the people, who are philosophically supposed to be the rulers of their leaders, become the ruled. The rich heritage of self governance that the country has is not enough to deal with the broken political establishment, according to the book. Disagreeing with the government policies and forcing incompetent leaders to resign may not fix the problem and is just a superficial show of might by the people who are inwardly subjugated. Socrates said that things work well every time the people are in charge, and they will tend to go wrong if the people lose hold of the charge that they have (Walker 119). The author of this book agrees with Socrates when he emphasizes that the biggest problem facing the people of the United States of America in their quest to attain self governance is the inability of the people to make the leaders completely submissive to their power. This book demonstrates the direction the Americans want to take. It takes a predictive stance claiming that the current feelings by Americans about their political establishment will precipitate an action that will ultimately make them leaders completely answerable to the people. There is a big quest for the people to govern themselves and to govern their leaders also and the book claims that in the future, it will be increasingly hard for the leaders to manipulate the people with their divisive and polarizing antics. The leaders will no longer be able to move the people right, left and centre because the people have learnt a lesson from the breakdown of the political systems by giving the leaders that room to manipulate them. When the Americans manage to govern themselves, the leadership will be placed in a tight corner because it will become the slave of the masses. This is exactly what is supposed to be and the Americans are slowly moving towards that direction. The book gives some recommendations to those willing o occupy the political; positions in the twenty first century. It warns them that leading the twenty first century America will be requiring a lot of subservience. The America of the future, according to the book will be more resistant to arm twisting and bullish tactics of George Bush and the influential divisive polarization of the two main political parties. The business community and the government will find it hard to create exploitative alliances that suck the blood of the Americans because when complete self governance is realized, the people will be speaking as the other establishments listen and act accordingly.
Impact of the book
The book has changed the way politics is practiced in the US by exposing the real debate that will lead to self governance. The book moves from the traditional Democratic-republican angles and the left-right wings to the modern bureaucracy against self governance. However the author is quick to defend the business community actions of seeking government intervention in the free market. Their quest to have regulations and taxes relaxed is not related to bureaucracy that impeded self governance. It is something that is happening allover the world and the book has set its first pages aside to debunk the belief that the business community is fighting to work without the regulation of the government. However he attacks some of the actions of the business communities which he claims they defeat their core objective of serving the public. The main subject of the attack is their attempts to fund their own retirement schemes after spearheading the collapse of the national security system.
The big question that this book raises is whether self reliance is a universal concept. It helps the Americans to understand that if the current alliances between the government and the business sector are sustained and encouraged, America will become like most western European countries where there are little levels of self governance (Fizpatrick 123). The author claims that the situation of lack of self governance in the United States of America is not as bad as in Europe and the Americans have the chance to redeem themselves from the tyranny of the political and business systems. The author gives political advice to the political elite telling them that passing a legislation that affects the majority without enough bi partisan support is very suicidal because it is a real recipe for trouble. He uses this premise to caution the Obama regime that the proposed tax policy will accentuate the divide that exists between those who pay taxes and the ones that eat the taxes (Rasmussen 67).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the book is very vital because it casts a lot of light on the many things that are happening in many areas of the American spheres of life. It explains the concept of self governance outside the political realm. It also sheds light on the constructive changes that are taking place in America after people realized that the politicians have bee dividing them in order to assert their power on them. The perspective that the author takes is very broad and reminds the people that most of the positive things in America were not achieved though the efforts of the legislature. They were achieved by the efforts of the hearts, the minds and the contribution of the individual Americans who should have the opportunity to govern themselves. This book treats the subject of self governance in a way that most writers have shied away from and this is what makes it to stand out as a political and philosophical masterpiece.
Works Cited
Fizpatrick, Sheila. Political Dialogues. NY: Sage.2006.
Rasmussen, Scot. In Search of Self Governance: New York: Pearson Books.2009.
Walker, James. The Will to Believe and Other Popular Essays in Philosophy. MA: Harvard University Press. 1999.