Noblesse oblige, the idea that the privileged have a moral responsibility to help the less privileged is far different from what we would expect from our US government employees and representatives.
While noblesse oblige is a general notion rooted in the whim of charitable impulse of those with superior power and wealth, government is usually viewed as a function of a rule of law that demands accountability to citizens and responsibility by those who are public employees to act lawfully as representatives of the citizens who put them in office. It is the interaction and mutual though different rights of both citizens and their government employees to have a say in our system.
President Obama and his narrow view of a government class that is more important than any private sector class and his partner view that as head of this class he gets to decide where the resources of this class go has created a chaotic presidency filled with random crumbs tossed into the private sector where the bulk of protectionism is often bestowed on the preservation and enrichment of the government class.
There is a big difference between a rich individual whose kindness might be limited to funding a pet project with big charitable actions and donations and the instance where a system of government is used to do the same thing ignoring the fact that the resources of the President from his position to the funds and personnel he has at his disposal come from citizens who are in turn owed representation as a whole and who get to, through their input to their representatives, support or withhold support for where those government resources are going.
Lying to the public and finding loopholes to justify irregular or singular actions both illustrate contempt on the part of a government leader for the money and authority bestowed on him or her by citizens. In other words, the government class SHOULD work for the citizen body, not the government class.
This President in particular seems to use his position in government as an opportunity to exercise noblesse oblige rather than governance, bestowing money and privilege where he thinks it’s “the right thing to do,” often contrary to public opinion and only consistently protecting the government class exasperating the separation and distrust of a citizenry competing for the next random crumb tossed out by this President.
Nowhere was the President’s attitude expressed more clearly than in 2012 when the President argued on behalf of the government class stating that “the private sector is doing fine,” (look up Obama, private sector doing fine, June 2012).
Noblesse oblige is tyranny in government, leaving citizens scratching their heads at a President preaching his personal morality and how he will use the tool of his position to codify his moral priorities or personal ambitions into law showing contempt for both the process and rule of law and the citizens who put him on office.
In this context, Chuck Schumer was accurate in stating, “We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem - health care reform,” CNN, "Schumer on 2016: 'Democrats must embrace government,'” Dan Merica, November 25, 2014.
Schumer rightfully concludes that prioritizing the President’s agenda rather than continuing “…to propose middle class-oriented programs and built on the partial success of the stimulus [that] The focus on Obamacare gave anti-government forces and the Republican Party new vigor and new life,” (same cite).
Focusing on personal pet projects and misidentifying problems and direct solutions for problems that beset citizens is a big mistake and a sign of contempt of those who put a public employee in office. Similarly, contempt for citizens has been shown by this President from the lies told and adhered to about Obamacare to the flagrant disregard of issues surrounding illegal immigrants with the passage of two executive orders, one granting amnesty to illegals under 30 and the second granting amnesty to parents of those here legally, in other words making all those newly legal illegals AND THEIR PARENTS legally present in the US.
When finally unable to avoid why promised and stated provisions of Obamacare in fact were not included and did not work the way promised the President merely stated that not everything could be accomplished, as if he was the head of a wealthy organization choosing to finance one cause or another rather than as a President who misled and failed the needs of American citizens who put him in office.
The President made things worse as the government class decided randomly how to implement the law in a piecemeal fashion allowing for premium entitlement payments without implementing verification provisions of the law, delaying the onset of other provisions and even with the government class expanding payments to individuals enrolled through the Federal exchange in states that neither were nor planned to implement an exchange of their own.
The attitude that the government class is “Bestowing” something on the poor citizens of the US with Obamacare or any other legislation is a dangerous one because it subjects citizens to the whims of government or worrying who will buy influence in government. The attitude of noblesse oblige allows a government to act as if it has unfettered authority to determine what’s best for a citizen population rather than an obligation to mirror a consensus of citizen opinion communicated to representatives charged with acting on their behalf.
These decisions couched in the language of “the right thing to do,” are as random and often as wrongfully motivated as Republican arguments that individuals should not receive “entitlements” such as food stamps or unemployment but that offshore accounts for the rich and the out-sourcing of American jobs is somehow “the right thing to do.”
The government class has gained too much power over the citizens that employ them and that is why citizens must pressure our Congress to work less at placating their party leaders and work harder to listen and act on behalf of those they represent.
Because it is always best to include suggestions for something different, I think there are a few things we should do. One is for media to start covering responses citizens get from their Congresspeople when they contact them and keep better track of what exactly representatives are doing with their public employment.
Perhaps citizens should push for more use of Constitutional authority to remove members of Congress by pushing of members to initiate expulsion proceedings or resolutions to remove, or pressuring Congresspeople to resign. Providing job and benefits security or waiting for terms to expire may no longer always be appropriate in these times when citizens are rarely afforded the same job protection and we’re told every nickel counts that is spent by our Federal government.
Another avenue would be to steer government employees away from their noblesse oblige attitude. Pressure your representatives to take a pay cut, watch their benefits be cannibalized, or endure mandatory furloughs as a step PRIOR TO telling Medicare eligible citizens that the government money going to them is an “entitlement,” seemingly unearned. The superior treatment of the government class encourages their confusion between governance and the wrongful behavior they exhibit as dictators of what is “moral” in our country.
Countries do illustrate morality through their laws and actions. That’s why citizen opinion about everything from torture to the death penalty to the provision of food stamps IS a national concern. We should not allow our government class to freely determine what we stand for based on trickery like Obamacare or self-interest like political donations.
We provide food stamps because as a nation we believe that this is the right thing to do for our nation as a whole including the prevention of the costs associated with decimating the poor and the concurrent problems frequently associated with abject poverty. If we stop providing food stamps it’s because as a nation we’ve decided that protecting corporate loopholes or some other policy is more important than feeding the poor.
Finally, consumers should look at the Federal budget. When we’re told by the government class what we can’t afford, consider what we still afford including federal government employee pensions, benefits. The ridiculous argument that cuts to citizen benefits is the only way to go is only a product of a government class protecting itself.
Legal and fiduciary duty is the opposite of noblesse oblige. Our government class owes everything, their position and their very salaries to our citizen contributions and votes. The individual “morality” and priorities of our President and representatives should be less relevant than the overall view of citizens who sustain the government class.
