"Government is us."

Here's an interesting quotation from Barack Obama's commencement speech at the University of Michigan yesterday (pulled from this AP story):

"But what troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad.  . . . When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us."


That says a lot.  Where to begin . . .

First of all, Obama is so handily losing every argument against existent, rational human beings these days that he's chosen to instead argue against phantom nonexistent or irrelevant straw men.  He says that he's troubled by people saying that "all of government is inherently bad."  Who's saying that?  Nobody I know.  Nobody rational anyway.  And certainly no nationally known leader of the Republican Party.

Second, but for those folks who claim that Barack Obama is not American, I don't think anybody is calling the U.S. government a "foreign entity."  The government can be and, under Obama, seems to be gaining or solidifying the ability to menace or threaten its citizenry.  I think that America's founding fathers would be proud of those of us who remain wary of Washington's power.

Finally, Obama wants to placate fears of government power by reminding us that "government is us."  You know what, since the government is "you" right now, Mr. Obama, my fears are actually heightened at the moment.