Where Will We Go From Here?

"We have more than a century of experience to show that ever bigger, ever more expensive, ever more intrusive government simply doesn't work.  Big government has not eliminated or even significantly reduced poverty.  It has not made our health care or retirement systems better.  It has not improved education.  It has not solved any of the myriad problems out society faces.  Indeed, more often than not it has made those problems worse."

Michael D. Tanner
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

So, answer please, why do we, and I say "we" as a citizenry, why do we continue to elect and/or desire "leaders" who are foisting such continuous gubment growth, continuous organizational and economic inefficiencies, continuous bad ideas onto us and our society as "remedies" and "fixes" for what ails us?

There are some huge, HUGE, gubment ideas in the last 50 years that have done little to solve their intended aims!

Does anyone remember the, shall we call it, AIM of the creation of the Department of Energy?  It came in response to an oil embargo and quadrupled oil prices.  It's AIM was to get us off foreign oil and make us foreign-dependency free!  Yes, yes, it was to lead us into the Promised Land of Energy Independence!

What was our dependency on foreign sources of energy then and what is it now?  How have they done and how are they doing?  Indeed, as the quote above says, it has made that problem worse.  And created new problems.

Does anyone remember the, shall we call it, AIM of the creation of the Department of Education?  It came in response to our perceived falling behind internationally in "test" scores and the creation of important people like engineers, scientists and mathematicians.  Yes, yes, it was to lead us into the Promised Land of Smart, creating a new generation, and subsequent generations, of kids, all our kids, better prepared for the future and ready to compete internationally.

What was our educational position in the world then and what is it now?  How have they done and how are they doing?  Indeed, as the quote above says, it has made that problem worse.  And created new problems. 

This could go on, and on. 

What have the past few years bequeathed us?  Larger bureaucracy, more gubment intrusion, the slice and dice of the Constitution to gain this or that part of the "agenda" that poll after poll after poll says Americans do not want.  We have debt beyond belief or even calculation.  Who will pay that?  We have organizational and economic inefficiencies most cannot understand.  And the plundering of sacred tax dollars used to enrich the gubment sector (departmentally and individually) gets revealed here and there in small ways, but is mostly hidden from view.

Elected and appointed "leaders" retire as multi-millionaires, with golden parachutes that include a lifetime of benefits provided by those they were to "serve" as "civil servants."  Then they continue to enrich themselves on this or that speaking circuit or as "consultants," advising the gubment on how to continue its plod into greater and greater control of those they "serve."

Truly, our Founding Fathers would not only be embarrassed by such a gubment, not recognizing it, but likely enraged!  They revolted against far less in the face of what they understood to be tyranny!

Complaining of that tyranny, and the dictator in charge of it, one of my favorite lines from the Declaration of Independence is this one:

"He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance."

Does that not describe, perfectly, our current situation?

Where will we go from here?