Will we imagine democracy or will we eat government cheese?
The people wanted government to make their lives better; the government gave them cheese.
Nothing works. The rest is breaking down. The climate is going crazy. Corruption is rampant. No one is held accountable. Rule of law applies only to the weakest. The government does not respond to the public and as everything moves to the top few the “system” is frozen by design.
The Carter presidency was a short Interregnum between bad and worse. Will the surprising Biden presidency be another short Interregnum between much, much worse and a new era of world authoritarianism?
About Government Cheese
Government Cheese chronicles the collapse of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism.
Corruption is government cheese. The collapse of the Rule of Law is government cheese. Unresponsiveness to popular opinion and votes is government cheese. Minority rule in the US Senate or from the Electoral College and from gerrymandering and from voter suppression is government cheese. In the UK “first past the post” representation is government cheese.
The decades-long, billionaire-funded attack on democracy has brought us to government cheese.
Government Cheese is a sister site of Imagine Democracy.
Which will it be? Will we imagine democracy or will we eat government cheese?
United States Government Cheese
During the depression the government’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) assisted dairy farmers by purchasing and storing cheese. This kept the supply down, which supported prices. When the depression ended the farm lobby bribed persuaded politicians to continue programs to buy and store cheese.
Then, in the 1980s the Reagan administration cut taxes on the rich and cut things like nutrition assistance programs. Instead the government provided hungry people with big blocks of “government cheese” to eat instead of vegetables and other nutritious food.
United Kingdom Government Cheese
According to forces.net,
During the Second World War milk, previously used to make a variety of different cheeses, was redirected to factories to make a product that would become known as ‘Government Cheddar’. This was part of a wider civilian rationing scheme to help Britain feed itself at a time of extreme food shortage.
A propaganda film, promoting eating Government Cheddar instead of meat, was shown in cinemas before many films were screened. The Ministry of Information created short films during WW2 to keep people informed as many got their news from the cinema.
Dave Johnson of Seeing the Forest is the founder of Government Cheese.