Government Gangrene

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” -- John Adams

Articulate liberal James Fallows  has written a long piece entitled "How America Can Rise Again."  I don't agree with his conclusion, but he's a great writer and his assessment of our current situation is an entertaining think piece.

The Choice:  More Government (Big Enough to Finally Succeed) or Less Government (decommission a failed enterprise)

For tomorrow, we really have only two choices. Doing more, or doing less. Trying to work with our flawed governmental system despite its uncorrectable flaws, or trying to contain the damage that system does to the rest of our society. Muddling through, or starving the beast.

Dutiful progressive that he is, he picks the wrong option:

Readers may have guessed that I am not going for the second option: giving up on public efforts and cauterizing our gangrenous government so that the rest of society can survive.

He then constructs a strawman to advance his case:  Conservatives, like a third-world rabble, want to abolish all government.  Having unfairly smeared us, he then scolds us to look at what that has done to the world's failed societies:

But the lack of corresponding public virtues—rule of law, expectation of physical safety, infrastructure that people can enjoy or depend on without owning it themselves—made those societies more hellish than they needed to be.

No small government conservative in his right mind would advocate a complete withdrawal of government from public life.  That's anarchy!  

Conservatives Understand, Government is a Necessary Evil

"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil" -- Thomas Paine

We love our infrastructure and rule of law, but most of us wouldn't mind seeing the feral government burn a few libraries worth of nanny state, liberty-killing regulations.  Does congress really need to hold hearings on professional sports and regulate flush toilets? 

Fallows predictably advocates for more government action, citing John Quincy Adams' construction of lighthouses as an example of proto-big government.

He should have looked to the constitution and the Federalist Papers.  There he would find government as the impartial referee and the blind judge, steered only by the God-given rights of man and the light of our founding document.  Where the federal behemoth no longer casts a shadow, a million flowers will bloom.

"cauterize our gangrenous government so that the rest of society can survive."

Yes.  That's more like it...