Hey America, Take Notes.

Book XII.7        Tzu-kung asked about government.  The Master said, “Give them enough food, give them enough arms, and the common people will trust in you.
                Tzu-kung said, “If one had to give up one of these three, which should one give up first?”
                “Give up arms.”
                Tzu-kung said, “If one had to give up one of the remaining two, which should one give up first?”
                “Give up food.  Death has always been with us since the beginning of time, but when there is no trust, the common people will have nothing to stand on.”

Many segments from "the Analects" may be derived as useful to our present day government despite their age and reeking of old fashioned behavior. For example, the previous quote mentioned is an ideal picture of trust that one would desire of a citizen-government relationship. The United States government could most certainly take note of Confucius's belief. It is highly probable that should the government take measures to build trust with the common citizen and attempt to preserve it at all costs, such as detailed by Confucius, the American people would be in a much happier state - they would accept the actions of our government more strongly, and therefore, the government would receive less hate mail...or on a more important level I suppose, the common citizen would feel less resentment towards the governing administration. Sure, the government will have some supporters anyways, but there will always be a population that will resent it for all it is worth. Should more trust be built, the population of the disapproving folks may decrease greatly. Hence we observe the importance of trust in one's government. Should the government place the trust of its citizens over other elements - war, money, etc. such as Confucius suggests, they will be met with a much more positive response daily from the people and will not receive so much backlash for various actions.