Sound familiar? Most of us heard it growing up. Some of us said it to our own children. It’s the last resort of someone who has run out of better arguments — the declaration of authority without justification.
We are being governed that way right now.
Not guided. Not nurtured. Bullied. Called stupid. Low IQ. Insulted by people who work for us while acting like they own us. Expected to say thank you for the privilege of being fleeced and lied to simultaneously.
When did we forget whose house this is?
This is ours. All of it. Not the President’s. Not the administration’s. Not the property of a toddler in long pants who decided the rules that apply to everyone else are optional for him.
The National Parks are ours. The monuments are ours. The Kennedy Center is ours. The White House itself — every gilded inch of it — is ours. The Treasury is ours.
Get your fingers out of it.
We are not children being managed by a difficult parent. We are the employers of people who seem to have forgotten that they were hired, and can be fired.
We have two tools available and we are not using either of them effectively.
The first is the ballot. Elections are coming. Vote. If you don’t vote you forfeit your right to complain — and complaining is currently the national pastime so the stakes are high. A recent election was decided by less than five votes after the final tally. Five votes. If you think your vote doesn’t matter you are mathematically wrong.
I’m not telling you how to vote. I’m telling you to vote.
The second tool is simpler and more immediate. It is the one word every child hates more than lima beans or spinach.
No.
Not negotiated. Not qualified. Not apologized for.
No.
Said together. Said loudly. Said with the specific conviction of people who have just remembered that this is their house and they did not invite the current occupant to redecorate it.
The Founding Fathers used that word. It didn’t come easy and it didn’t come cheap. But they said it.
So. Get the cage off our lawn. Fix the Kennedy Center. Put the rose garden back. Take your picture off our buildings.
