Since 1980 - since 1776 actually - we have argued in this country about the role of government. Strong and unifying. (Hamilton) Small and weak. (Jefferson)

Reagan’s 1980 election ushered into power those Jeffersonians, although the modern right-wing, Trump-dominated Republican Party doesn’t much look like them.

“Government IS the problem,’’ Reagan famously said. 

Republicans for the last 40 years have won that argument. And it has rubbed off on all of us. My son once said to me - “What has the Democratic Party ever done for me?’’ Just the fact that he asks the question is an indictment of the modern Democratic Party. 

There is an unprecedented level of disgust and even hatred for government and the people who work for it. Of course Trump just exploits it. 

At state and federal levels, Republicans run against big government and scare voters into believing that “some bureaucrat in Washington’’ will decide whether you live or die or what your kid learns in school.

Democrats have done a terrible job for decades of explaining the role and importance of government. In the Reagan years, they didn’t even try. Bill Clinton - after stinging mid-term election losses, declared: “The era of big government is over.’’ Clinton gave into the Republican thinking so he could survive and win a second term.

What a difference a virus makes. It turns out when the chips are down, we turn to our government for expertise, support and knowledge - even inspiration. Witness national parks. 

We are now seeing Hamilton’s view and embracing it. With a shutdown of the economy and millions unemployed, everyone from the Federal Reserve to Trump’s treasury secretary have turned to government to deliver relief.

Those $1,200 payments that came into my kids’ bank accounts last month? Came from the government. 

Those paycheck protection checks received by small businesses? Came from government.

Anthony Fauci? He works for the government. He is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has worked there since 1984. It is an agency funded by taxpayer dollars. It is part of the National Institutes of Health, the government agency in charge of protecting our health. 

Your FHA loan that is getting you a lower rate on your mortgage? That is backed by the government. 

That Ebola crisis that could have blown up into something worse than COVID-19? It was shut down by government-funded agencies like the World Health Organization.

Suddenly, government matters. In Vermont, we watch and listen to Gov. Phil Scott and his staff brief us about the status of the virus, about the economy, about what we can do and when we should do it. 

Nationally, we watch Fauci and others for our cues on how to live inside this epidemic. 

National Guard, local police, school teachers on Zoom, Army Corps of Engineers building field hospitals - government workers all. Your parents’ free health care that works so well? That’s Medicare. Taxpayer funded since 1965.

This 40-year argument since Reagan about the role of government is at the heart of the paralysis in Congress and in our state legislatures. It seems modern Republicans want to “drown it in the bathtub,’’  in the infamous words of Grover Norquist, the patron saint of small government and lower taxes. 

But when danger lurks, when war comes, when a pandemic hits, we don’t turn to JP Morgan or Delta Airlines. We turn to our government for support, expertise and knowledge. Let’s just hope we haven’t weakened it so deeply that it can’t do the job. 

Government matters. Especially now. 

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CORRECTION

In my post about the late Harvey Carter, I incorrectly said his wife Mary did her graduate work at Umass. Its was actually Cornell. Sorry Mary!