Rep. Pramila Jayapal has figured out why Americans don't trust their government, and I'm sorry to report it isn't the government. It's you. You were tricked.
That's the thesis she laid out on the It's Open with Ilana Glazer podcast, in an interview released Thursday and reported by Breitbart News and others. "It is really important to the right wing, to the fascists, and all the people who want to control this country, and the billionaires, that people don't trust government," she said.
Now, everyone is going to dunk on this. Conservatives will call it socialism. Liberals will call it brave. I'm going to do something more dangerous. I'm going to take her seriously, which nobody on either side has the stomach for.
Her argument goes like this. Democratic socialists see government as "the great equalizer of opportunity," the "biggest entity out there that can make sure that you have basic needs provided for." And the more the bad guys say government is "corrupt" or "inefficient, it's et cetera, et cetera," the less you trust it.
Notice what's missing from that list of suspects. The DMV. The two-hour hold music. The pothole that has been "scheduled" since the Obama administration. In Jayapal's telling, nobody learned to distrust government by dealing with government. They learned it from a billionaire. Presumably over the phone, while on hold with the IRS.
Then the closer. Pointing to places where people trust government more, she said, "Those are socialist countries. They are democratic socialist countries. And in many of those places, there's so much more trust in government because government has provided a lot of the fundamentals for a long time."
You'll say that's wrong, that Denmark's own prime minister once went out of his way to remind Americans his country is a market economy. Fine. You're right. You're also missing the point, which is the part where she says that trust in those places is "being eroded in part because of the role of the United States, frankly."
So let me get the chain of custody straight. Americans don't trust their government because of fascists and billionaires. Europeans don't trust theirs as much as they used to because of America. America, as far as I can tell, is the only country on Earth whose government is somehow too untrustworthy to be trusted and too powerful to stop ruining everyone else's trust.
And here's where I lose you, reader, because you think the punchline is that she wants more government. It isn't. Every politician wants more government. That's the job. The punchline is the sales pitch. She is a sitting member of Congress, which is the government, telling you that the reason you don't trust Congress is a conspiracy against Congress.
That's not a policy position. That's a restaurant blaming its one-star reviews on people who have eaten there.
I'll grant her one thing, because I'm fair and you're not. Trust in government really is low. Gallup and Pew have tracked it sliding for decades, under presidents of both parties. Where we differ is the cause. She thinks the public was misinformed. I think the public was informed, repeatedly, by the government, in writing, with a late fee.
So by all means, keep blaming the fascists and the billionaires. Just don't be surprised when the voters you're asking to trust you take their cue from your own speech and decide you're the et cetera.
The Demorat is a satire publication. This article is a comedy roast built on real reported events; jokes, exaggerations and fictional characters are not real news.
The real story that inspired this
