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Ronald Reagan on Regionalism
Ronald Reagan's Call to Action (Book, Warner pp. 139-140, with Charles D. Hobbs) ^ | March, 1976 | Ronald W. Reagan

Posted on 04/14/2020 6:25:31 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana

Being a government planner in a free society should be almost as unrewarding aa being a freethinker in a fascist state. The major difference, any bureaucrat can tell you, is that while a free society may thwart your plans, lt allows you to keep your job and your life. The resulting combination of frustration and security gives government planners an attitude of desperate benevolence toward the people they serve. They want to. tell us how to live and, by heaven, we'd better listen if we know what's good for us.

Unfortunately, their compulsion to make us listen often turns planners into schemers, looking for ways to make us live as they think we should, whether we like it or not. Their latest scheme, shaped and polished over the last 15 years, is a new layer of government, called “regional government.”

The idea of regional government really stems from the bureaucrats' distrust of elected officials and the people who elected them. Elected officials sometimes listen to the people, much to the distress of the planners. The answer: reduce the power of elected officials, and thus of the people, by installing regional governments of appointed bureaucrats to make all of the important decisions. The design: put regional governments between local and state governments to usurp local control, and put other regional governments between the states and the federal government to usurp states' rights.

Regionalists have tried to disguise the movement toward regionalism as a public good in two ways, both spurious.

The first is the argument that state and local governments, and especially our larger cities, have failed to meet the public needs of their citizens. The argument is persuasive until one looks at the incredible burden that Washington has placed on state and local governments. With its ability to deficit spend, the federal government has forced lower levels of government into so-called sharing programs that have broken the backs of local taxpayers and placed impossible restrictions on the flexibility of local governments.

The second approach has been for regionalists to join with environmentalists in promoting a myth that only regional governments can solve regional problems, such as pollution, congestion, and transportation. This contention presupposes that there are natural geopolitical "regions" in which all of these problems are completely contained. The truth is that each problem affects a unique area and population, making boundaries for general purpose regional governments as artificial as state and county boundaries. These problems are best solved the cooperation of local governments--cooperation forced by the state, if necessary.

One of the calling cards of the regionalists across the country is a lapel button labeled "Be regionable.”


TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: reagan; regionalism
Reagan was warning us about regionalism 45 years ago. I haven't read this book in decades, but I remembered the warning, and scanned in the pertinent pages. http://www.cpc-corp.com/pdf/reagan.pdf
1 posted on 04/14/2020 6:25:31 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana
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To: Dr. Sivana
So appropriate today, since governors of eastern states are banding together reopen. Given their nature this certainly will not go without a lot of new government, new spending and new authority over business and people. They will do this together because, "in times like this it is necessary." They will use the media and every excuse to have executive orders and legislation shoved down our throats. While not officially a regional government, they are beginning to behave that way.

An alternative way to look at this is shadow government to the Federal government since Trump is running the show. In the end, it is the behavior that matters, not the label. New deep staters will be minted before our eyes.

2 posted on 04/14/2020 6:38:15 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (It's official! I'm nominated for the 2020 Mr. Hyperbole and Sarcasm Award.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

I enjoyed reading that. He was amazingly eloquent.


3 posted on 04/14/2020 6:38:18 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: Dr. Sivana

I wouldn’t trade the American system for anything. What I would do is throw 90% out of our government the swamp creatures if not hang them.


4 posted on 04/14/2020 6:48:56 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: shanover
What I would do is throw 90% out of our government the swamp creatures if not hang them.

They're just a symptom of the disease, we have the government we deserve.

5 posted on 04/14/2020 6:50:43 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Wait a minute - something wrong here.

“any bureaucrat can tell you, is that while a free society may thwart your plans, lt allows you to keep your job and your life.”

Wrong Answer McFry. A free society that by definition is under the Rule of Just Law (in our case, the Constitution), does NOT allow an unconstitutional bureaucracy to continue and MANY would lose their unconstitutional government jobs accordingly.

A free society is only free because it and its government is under the Rule of Just Law - exactly what America is - a nation legally (but not experientially right now) ruled by the Just Law of the Constitution which the bad guys have tried to kill. In practice, the bad guys have illegally replaced the Rule of the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution, with the Tyranny of the Rule of the Whims of Man.

I don’t know what “regionalism” is but if it’s smaller local government, that is a step towards greater freedom.

The whole idea of decentralized government and freedom is the smaller and more local the government the better.

The best local government is individual government - one’s freedom to govern himself without outside interference.

The next best government is local which includes state government.

The most dangerous government is central government - a necessary evil IF limited, but utterly dangerous if not as our own now totalitarian federal government is today.


6 posted on 04/14/2020 7:05:28 PM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Regionalists have tried to disguise the movement toward regionalism as a public good in two ways, both spurious.

And here is a great example:
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/04/14/California-Oregon-outline-plans-to-reopen-after-COVID-19-shutdowns/9871586899773/

alifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said they would both implement gradual openings based on science and data, declining to offer a set date on when orders to remain inside and close non-essential businesses would end.

Newsom said he expects to have a better view of the timing for his plan to reopen the state in about two weeks but said “the prospects of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and a vaccine.”

He also warned that people will return to an environment in which people will continue to wear masks, and restaurants staff will wear masks and gloves while serving half as many customers.

Schools would also be required to develop new protocols including plans to sanitize playgrounds and other surfaces to prevent infections.


7 posted on 04/14/2020 7:09:04 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: BillyBoy; AuH2ORepublican; fieldmarshaldj; campaignPete R-CT

I wish they’d take it further actually and GD secede.


8 posted on 04/14/2020 9:06:22 PM PDT by Impy (I have no virtue to signal.)
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To: dfwgator

Who is this “we”, Kemo Sabe ?


9 posted on 04/14/2020 9:29:53 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Dear Mr. Kotter, #Epsteindidntkillhimself - Signed, Epstein's Mother)
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