I have been deeply involved in politics for decades, and am usually passionate about the outcomes. Even as a kid I cared about politics–which probably is a symptom of a latent mental illness, come to think of it.
So every election day I am as jumpy as a nicotine addict who has run out of smokes. I am nervous, distracted, jumpy, and irritable.
More than usual, that is. According to my wife that is just another day in the Strom household.
Elections have always mattered. We are choosing our representatives, who are called upon to make decisions of great import. Even those elections to which we pay too little attention can turn out to matter a great deal. Think of all those school board elections you skipped voting on because you didn’t pay attention.
Well, some of those candidates you didn’t know about turned out to be groomers who are putting pornography in classrooms. They are recruiting kids to mutilate themselves. Big oops on skipping that election. I am as guilty as anyone in this.
Yet I am disappointed that elections now matter so much. I have long believed that Americans were blessed by the fact that elections used to matter less here than in some countries, because our government had less direct influence on our lives than in those places.
The smaller the government, and the less influential it is in our lives and the less election mistakes matter. In an ideal world the outcome of an election would be only moderately noticeable to the average person, because the large balance of their lives can be lived outside the control of the only modestly intelligent and wise people we elect. The Republic should be easily able to absorb quite a few elections in which an AOC wins without much damage.
That government is best which governs least. Thoreau, who said this, is a great example of why we need government to be very limited–the guy was nuts, and thankfully stayed far away from power. But his point is good.
Government is a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless. Its tool, everywhere and always, is coercion. Even the very best things it does it can only do through overt or covert coercion. The roads, the monuments, the school buildings…whatever…all were built using resources extracted out of people through coercion. Fail to pay your taxes and the government can send men with guns to put you away.
In an ideal world–and we live in a world very far from ideal–the role of government could be supplanted entirely by voluntary associations. This is the world that libertarians would like to believe could exist.
Unfortunately, experience shows that divergences of interests between individuals and communities are too great, and the evil that resides in the breast of human beings too pervasive to let us peacefully decide things together all the time. Human conflict is unavoidable. Human depravity too frequent. Rationality too weak a force in human affairs to dispense with the need for government and the use of force.
Don’t believe me? Walk around a dangerous part of a city at night and expect to be safe. When government control weakens to the point of fraying, chaos ensues.
But that doesn’t mean that government should invade every aspect of our lives, and in the modern world it truly does. There is hardly an aspect of our lives that is not subject to government regulation, taxation, compulsion, regulation, tracking, monitoring, nudging, and propaganda. It is inescapable.
It’s exhausting, debilitating, and infantilizing. And is not at all benign.
Elections matter so much because it is not “government” as an entity that invades every aspect of our lives–it is people who are given the massive power of government who do so. Government is not an abstraction. Government has no feelings, desires, interests…people do. Government is a tool, and the people we elect get to wield it.
So we must choose carefully, and demand that our representatives limit their own power. In this the Founders did relatively well, but also in this subsequent generations have been failing badly. We have allowed government to invade every corner of our lives.
Some of that is due to the depravity and lust for power found in most politicians, but too much is due to the depravity and lust for power in our fellow citizens. They abuse our compassion and our desire for good against us; they demand we empower government to achieve “good” things. To feed, to house, to support, embrace, and comfort the downtrodden.
As if a government bureaucracy could do that. If it could San Francisco, Portland and Seattle would be paradises, not wealthy dumps paved with human feces. Who has benefited from the billions we spend on “compassion?” Take a guess. It’s not the people being “helped.”
When, God willing, Republicans take back power in 2024 (this election only gives us the power to slow down Democrats) we must demand the gradual dismantling of the administrative state. We must do to the government what Elon Musk did to Twitter: fire half the employees and start cleaning up the mess.
Could it happen? Probably not. But if we want to preserve our freedoms, it also must.
From our fearless leader:
Don’t forget that we’re not just covering the midterms tonight but are preparing for the all-important 2024 presidential cycle as well. We need to make sure Democrats are one and done in the White House, too. If you want real in-depth analysis and exclusive content and wish to support the long-term mission, join HotAir VIP today and use promo code VIPWEEK to receive 45% off your membership!
