While discussing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s political woes with their response to the Boxing Day Blizzard, progressive radio host Thom Hartmann was asked by Countdown substitute host Sam Seder if there’s anything in the Constitution that requires the government to do things like snow removal.

Hartmann points out that actually, there is.

Hartmann: The common welfare is cited twice in the Constitution Sam; in the preamble and in the body of the Constitution. And so you would think that clearing snow is part of the common… is part of the general welfare. […] The commons in general is what government was created to be responsible for; the roads that we travel on, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe. We’ve expanded it over the years… the safety of our food supply, the safety of our drugs, but it’s all about the commons.

And that really is the purpose of democracy in America. We are the government. The government is us.

Thom also reminded us of just what these believers in privatizing everything and the “free market” supposedly working its wonders are all about—making money.