Our preamble to the Constitution states that the governance of this nation was formed so as to promote the general welfare of its people, amongst other important obligations. This thus signifies that American governance needs to do its level best to do right by those citizens by promoting that general welfare in the activities that it so envisions and accomplishes. Yet, when we take a good look at America, and see all the misery, poverty, ill-education, incarceration, lack of opportunity, injustice, and hopelessness that a meaningful subsection of Americans duly suffers from, we have to admit that the general welfare of this nation does not appear to be something that has been well distributed to all Americans, but rather seems to be something that has been corrupted in a way that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, with the middle class carrying ever more weight, thereby reflecting the unjustness and unfairness of America.
Indeed, part of the reason for America falling well short of promoting the general welfare on behalf of the people is that those who are our legislators don’t seem to recognize that this obligation is one of the cardinal functions of the purpose of their being the people’s representatives. In other words, our legislators seem to, far too often, turn a blind eye to the people, and spend far more time concentrating on benefiting their own self in conjunction with those special interests that they specifically are trying to please, thereby effectively ignoring their constituency.
America would be a far different country, if those who are our representatives, recognized in their thoughts and in their subsequent actions, that their first responsibility is to the people, and in particular, to see that what was accomplished on behalf of those same people, was that which promoted their general welfare. The fact that this is the richest nation that the world has ever known, signifies that the reason that the welfare of so many, is not up to par, reflects that the taxation of this nation, the fairness of this nation, and the construct of this nation as exercised, is not in conformity or in harmony with the promotion of that general welfare.
Look, it has to be said, that many a comparable Western nation, has a far more robust social safety net for their people, along with having a universal health care system for them, as well as importantly having far less violent crime, which reflects that America has not done right by its people. Our Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and when that Constitution is effectively ignored or circumvented, then what we do see, is the general welfare of this nation, not being prioritized and thereby falling short of what it could do for its people. Indeed, important and great legislation has been passed for the benefit of that general welfare, but any legislated law is only as good as its successful implementation in the real world, and when we look around America, it has to be said, that regarding the general welfare of the people, our governance is doing a lackluster job in reaching those that need such welfare and opportunity, the most.