I truly don’t like to be “anti-government”, but I am 100% “pro competence”, and those two positions are proving to be more so mutually exclusive every day. Especially when and where the national government is involved. Even after now 3-1/2 years of an operations person like President Donald Trump in the White House, the wailing and flailing of the grossly incompetent national government continues. I ask you, “Can you tell me one single thing that the national government operates or regulates competently?” I think that We The People, the United States Citizens, need to start asking and answering this question with a new level of seriousness. And when you do, I don’t think you’ll like the answer.
Why? It’s because WE are the ones who are paying for this ever-expanding mountain of GROSS incompetence. And we are paying these costs at an inflated level that reflects the incompetence involved, at times at an exponentially expanding rate. We must start to recognize that everything “Golden” about the Great American Experiment, that the national government touches, turns to lead. We all remember the quests of great magicians and alchemists throughout history were to “turn lead in to gold”?
Let’s just look at this whole situation that has enveloped the Country since this past January/February, Novel Coronavirus COVID-19. In this Country, with arguably the finest medical industry in the World, and as hard as President Trump tried to do the proper thing, in providing oversight and back-up to the States and cities, who Constitutionally have the lead, the incompetence of the national government spewed out all over this. Whether it was how the Emergency Preparedness Stockpiles had been depleted and not resupplied by the previous administration, or the multiple directives issued by the scientists (read: bureaucrats) at the CDC and NIH, at every turn the incompetence has sloshed all over every piece of this “Pandemic”, and continues to today.
Well, we are now seeing the “magical’ ability of the national government to do the “gold to lead” transformation. And I have no question the Founders knew this could or, if unchecked, would happen. And it was why the Constitution was written with the national government having very limited and specific, enumerated, powers. I just don’t think they ever fathomed that We The People would become so successful that it would allow US to become so inattentive and ignorant to what their great experiment was doing TO US. This is why it is critical that we decide to get “back in the game” and change the direction of out national government.
I would like to share something a friend who serves at a high level in our State Government shared with me a while back. At the time, he had been a State Elected Official for about 5-6 years. He told me, “I’ve been able to establish two absolutes in how government operates at this point, 1) Government doesn’t do anything well. And 2) What government does best, it does very poorly.” I believe he absolutely nailed it. And I believe the national government fits his two absolutes TIMES 50!
Think about any of the great institutions and industries in US history, all of which started as local and/or private entities, and it must be recognized that the beginning of the downfall and destruction of any of these is when they became either successful enough, or productive enough, that the national government decided they had to get involved. Whether through regulation or taxation, once the incompetence of the national government intrudes, the institution or industry begins to degrade. EVERY TIME!
And it always starts with “safety”, or “fairness”, or “equality” or my favorite, “for the greater good”. And it always ends with graft, corruption, incompetence and destruction. From the biggest to the smallest, from the simplest to the most complex, if you want to kill or greatly degrade ANY great idea, institution or industry, just bring on the national government incompetence and you can “fundamentally transform” the greatest things into useless or inefficient, and then destructive clutter. It is time we start to think, and not just accept what national government incompetence is doing TO US.
