Washington ? Relax and have a leisurely Memorial Day weekend, the government says. But watch out for terrorists.

It’s sort of like saying, “You have a dentist appointment. Have fun.”

Sometimes the government seems to be sending mixed messages, as if it wants all things at all times. And it’s not just nuanced messages about terrorism.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spends millions to trumpet anti-smoking campaigns. Meanwhile, tobacco farmers get millions in disaster payments and loans for their crop from the Agriculture Department.

Social Security officials complain that people aren’t stashing money away for retirement, while President Bush urges citizens to do their patriotic duty by spending to pump up the economy and stand up to terrorists bent on shaking the American way of life.

And while the government encourages people to save, the tax code penalizes savings by taxing interest on them. It rewards debt with tax breaks for certain borrowing.

“The government can’t speak with one voice,” says political psychologist Stanley Renshon, a professor at the City University of New York. “The government is a hodgepodge of past accommodations and future aspirations.”

Take immigration laws, he says. It’s “a case where we have a body of laws which are inconsistent, contradictory and unguided by any central theme — and that was on a good day.

“The tax system, immigration system, all public policy arenas are wholly the result of pushes and pulls of interest groups over time, and you get a crazy-quilt system,” he says. “It is part of how democracy works.”

Homeland security, rather than being a special interest, is really for the entire public’s interest.

The Bush administration, worried that a wave of attacks overseas could spread to the United States, raised the terrorism alert level this week and urged increased security nationwide.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge encouraged people to be alert but also urged them to relax and enjoy the holiday weekend.

Renshon says that while it sounds contradictory, it’s really the government’s way of saying “relax to the extent of knowing what is out there.”

The conflicting messages coming from government don’t stop there. There are plenty of helpings in other parts of people’s lives, even on their plates.

The government has recommendations for a balanced, healthy diet for everyone, and a special program to deal with an obesity epidemic in schoolchildren.

But the government also pays for school lunches that still have too much fat, despite some improvement in the last decade, congressional auditors said this month.

In another area, the government preaches free trade but has put big tariffs on imported steel and sugar, both politically sensitive homegrown commodities.

“Contradictions happen because policy is made bit-by-bit, and different interest groups get activated over different policies,” says Nelson Polsby, professor of political science at University of California, Berkeley.

“There is no mechanism for reconciling all contradictions into a single-minded grand strategy,” he says. Besides, “It’s politically expedient to say one thing and do another.”

Contradictions abound on Capitol Hill, where Democrats complain about huge federal deficits, then propose big spending boosts; or Republicans carp about balancing the budget, only to insist this year that the biggest deficits ever don’t matter.

The traditional welcome to immigrants is offset by heavy security concerns since the Sept. 11 attacks. Now people seeking asylum can be held without bond indefinitely if they’re deemed a potential risk to national security, and many more people are now required to be questioned, photographed and fingerprinted when they enter the United States.

Whether the government is talking about security, nutrition or trade, it’s democracy’s way of letting the pushes and pulls of different interests lead to some incoherent conclusion.

“A squeaky wheel gets oiled,” Renshon says, “and Americans are practiced on being squeaky wheels.”