They Don’t Trust Their Government

During a recent FNC television report from Iraq, the reporter doing the story commented that the Iraqi people don’t yet trust their government.

There’s an old joke in America about “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” How many times have our professional politicians broken the promises they made during a campaign? More times than they’ve kept them, I’ll wager.

The American Revolution was predicated on a distrust of our English rulers. Our Constitution was designed to limit the size and scope of our government. Those powers not specifically granted to our federal government were to be reserved to the States, or to the People thereof, according to the 10th Amendment of our Constitution.

Iraqis don’t yet trust their government. Sounds like they’ve already learned a lot from us Americans. It’s a lesson many Republicans have forgotten, a lesson most Democrats never learned.

Our professional class of career politicians look at most of us poor peons here in Middle America as little more than serfs to be taxed and cared for. And cared for and cared for and cared for. The repetitive redundancy of our government services is staggering. Politician after politician go around promising to fix whatever problems are ailing us. What they never realize is that most of our “problems” stem from the bureaucracy of an ineffective government.

Distrust of government is a good thing. A healthy dose of skepticism should greet every new proposal put forth by any government official. Their new programs, and most of the old ones, too, are based on government projections of what future generations will do. They seldom use dynamic modeling, relying instead on static projections, where everything is assumed to remain constant.

Nothing ever stays the same. Government services are subject to the same laws of supply and demand as everything else. When you reduce the cost of something, you increase the demand for that thing, be it a product or a service. Free government services encourage a stronger demand for those services. That’s how a $100 billion “free” government program suddenly costs taxpayers $300 billion (or more).

The promise of America has always been to give the individual the Freedom to pursue their own path to success in life, wherever that path takes them on their life’s journey. In Socialist/Communist societies, the government determines your path in life, usually with little or no individual freedom. If you’re unhappy with your lot in life, too bad.

The promise of America, the Freedom we enjoy as Americans, allows you and everyone else to change their lot in life if they choose to do so. You don’t have to go to the government to beg for a change. You just do it.

Americans sometimes forget, government employees and officials work for us. We’re the bosses. There’s a reason we call them public servants. Think about it this way. When you’re electing someone to a public office, you’re hiring them to manage your country. Campaigns are, in essence, pre-hiring auditions and interviews. Are the candidates answering the questions you’d have for a new employee? How truthful, how honest, how trustworthy, how competent are these prospective employees? Would you hire this candidate to manage your country?

George Washington warned us against allowing a professional political class to emerge. We’ve all but forgotten that sage advice, allowing the professional politicians not only to emerge, but to flourish. We’ve entrusted the management of America to them, and look at the results.

"There’s a reason we call them public servants."

There's a reason I call them public serpents.

As long as people and the media refer to government official as our, "leaders," we are lost. We elect representatives, and people to lead the executive organs of the federal, state and local governments. The President was my "leader" when I was in the military, but as a private citizen, he is the person I vote for to appoint a cabinet and execute the laws made by my elected legislators. The president is no more my leader than are my senators, representatives or my mayor. In a free country people should choose freely whom they care to follow and make their leaders, be that an employer, a member of the clergy or nobody at all. Every time I hear a politician referred to as a, "leader," either in the media or in general conversation, I wince a little bit knowing that the speaker hasn't really given much thought to the concept of liberty and what it means, and can not therefore fully appreciate it.

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