Update to "Thoughts on Government"

The Federal Triangle, on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I wrote what follows four years ago. As you may recall, the lead up to the Presidential election was underway, just as it is now. Though I do not believe either party had nailed down who their candidate was to be in May of 2016, though I believe the Dems actually knew exactly who their candidate was going to be, they just hadn't announced it yet. This time around they have their ventriloquist dummy primed and ready to take the stage. At least last time they were actually going to run the ventriloquist, and not the dummy.

The ventriloquist lost that election, and ever since the Dems have been losing their minds. I hear tell that they plan on attempting to impeach the President again. I wonder what trumped up charges they'll foist upon the Senate this time? (That choice of wording was, by the way, intentional.) Criminal conduct is not, however, just at the Federal level. We have a number of state governments who are auditioning to be the next "Fascist Idol."

Anyhoo.

Government is out of control, on nearly every level imaginable and it ain't limited to the jackass party either. So here are my updated thoughts on government, much of what I wrote back then is still, in my mind, relevant today. Updates are italicized. (The original post, avec les commentaires originaux, is here.)

One more thing I will include here, are two quotes provided by Frère juvat on the original post in a comment, true then, true now:

Those who seek power are not worthy of that power. 

― Plato

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. Fellow Republicans, it is the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people.

― Barry M. Goldwater

And the people say, Amen.

So Mesdames et Messieurs, without further ado, Sarge's...

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I have always felt that government - at any level - has two primary functions, for lack of any better terms I'll call those two functions infrastructure and protection. If any government cannot provide either of those two functions, that government deserves to be replaced. Mind you, government is not some thing or machine, no, government consists of people either elected, appointed, or anointed. If the people in government aren't doing the job, get others who will.

I still believe that, all of it. If you have an employee who isn't doing their job, explain their deficiencies to them, if they don't get the message, replace them. It's why we have elections people!

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By infrastructure I mean roads, railroads, bridges, canals, seaports, airports, schools, hospitals, cemeteries, parks, beaches and the like. Things that people need to get from point A to point B. Things whereby the productive folk can move their goods from source to marketplace to consumer. Places to teach the young, places to care for the sick, and places to inter the dead. Recreation in the forms of parks and beaches are useful and I think necessary.

Not all levels of infrastructure are the bailiwick of all levels of government. For instance, the Federal government should set standards, let the States themselves figure out how to meet those standards. If they refuse? Well, no Federal funding for you, okay?

Protection takes a number of forms. Protection from natural disasters could be viewed as part of the infrastructure but I view this as the duty of weather services, both local and national. Protection from crime, from fire, from stupid people (there are reasons for zoning laws, some being better than others).

I kind of missed the boat on assigning protection from natural disasters to the "weather services." They warn us so we can take the appropriate measures to protect ourselves, let me repeat that, protect ourselves. Of course, there are times when no matter what you do, you get nailed. Then the States themselves provide the initial response, if they are overwhelmed by the scope of the disaster, then (and only then) can the Feds step in. By the way, this virus-thingee is not a natural disaster.

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On a national level the people require (not need but require) protection from invaders, both armed and otherwise. (Trust me, illegal immigrants are a massive drain on local services. Those who don't wish to assimilate are here to make our home like their home. If their home is so damned wonderful, why are they here?)

No changes there, still believe that.

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It is not the business of government to involve themselves in the private lives of their citizens as long as those citizens are not harming anyone else. (For instance, an individual's right to go where they wish ends at someone else's property line. Your right to free speech does not mean that that speech need not have consequences. While I have the God-given right to call my boss an idiot, he has the God-given right to fire my ass should I do so.)

Different levels of government should not meddle at other levels. For instance, the Federal government has no business dictating to the individual states what those states can and cannot do, as long as those states are not in contravention of the Constitution of the United States as a whole.

By the same token the individual states should not meddle in Federal territory. For instance, Rhode Island may not enact a mutual defense treaty with Croatia. (I know that would be impractical and illogical in addition to being illegal under the Constitution.) But if Rhode Island wants to make common cause with Connecticut in an area of mutual interest, what right does the Federal government have to interfere? Provided of course said common cause does not violate the Constitution.

A number of distractions currently in play have the Feds interfering with state governments. Things which they have no business interfering with, such as who goes to the bathroom and where. Really DOJ? Aren't there existing Federal laws being broken which should demand your attention? (And threatening to cut off Federal funding? Where do you think that money came from? Washington DC? No. It came from the states. How about we cut off your funding?)

Cutting off Federal funding is a useful tool for the Feds to enforce national standards in education, road maintenance (not fire trucking speed limits), air traffic control, etc. The DOJ overstepped its bounds during the last administration, and is probably still guilty of that. Oh, one more thing I didn't mention back in 2016, unless the college/university you're talking about is West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, or the Coast Guard Academy, no Federal funds for you, ever. (Unless you have a vibrant and useful ROTC detachment, then you can get simoleons from Uncle Sam, but only for that.)

It's all bread and circuses. Distractions meant to entertain and confuse. If you think the nonsense coming in over the transom every damned day is not orchestrated, you probably need to rethink the way you look at things. There's an agenda out there and reasonable, limited government is not on that agenda. I'm not saying I know what's going on, but I smell a rat.

It really is all bread and circuses and most of the media are complicit in that. They lie to us so often that most of us have ceased trusting them altogether. Of course, as recent events show, the government (at all levels) are pretty accomplished liars themselves.

And yes, the nonsense surrounding this virus-thingee, illegal orders from state governors and the actions of certain police forces (which the Cossacks of the Tsars would be so proud of) spring to mind and is the precise reason for me repeating this old post.

The Ideal...

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I think we've lost our way. Let's start making noise and get back to the ideal. Damn it, this is our country we have a right and a duty to make it work for the benefit of all citizens. Not just a privileged few. And yes Congress, I'm looking at you!

Let me emphasize one thing in that last paragraph ALL CITIZENS! Not those who are here illegally, not just those who have more money than others, not just those who follow any particular religion (or none at all), not just those whose skin is a certain color, not just those who vote for one party rather than another. ALL CITIZENS OF THESE HERE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!

We must all hang together, for if we don't, we shall surely hang separately... (with apologies to the late, great, Benjamin Franklin.)

It is to weep.

Securing soap box activities at this time. Smoking lamp is lit, stand down from general quarters. That is...

Carry on.