Don’t Believe — Your Own — Bull****
Donald Trump is a metaphorical “Bull in a China Shop.” The metaphor is apropos on several levels. Yes, Trump is brash, unruly, and seemingly out of place. In the context of government, the “China Shop” represents something delicate, which was formerly attributed significant value and which is increasingly obsolete.
Today, Grandma’s China sells for pennies on the dollar. It has been replaced by disposable dishware. We no longer appreciate the intricacy, delicacy, or workmanship. It no longer “fits” our lifestyles. We would never consider paying the thousands of dollars that would be necessary to purchase or replace it, if new.
Government bureaucracies and fiefdoms are in many ways like Grandma’s China: Overpriced, having little practical benefit, and increasingly obsolete. Grandma resembles the bureaucrats: Proudly displaying what is seldom used (effectively) and which is entirely unnecessary. It is stored, protected, and earmarked to pass to future generations, who do not want it!
It is considered “precious” primarily because it is “old” and has been around so long. However, not everything that is old is valuable or beneficial. The past efforts to acquire and maintain a thing supposedly confirm its value. However, to borrow an adage from Law: Past consideration is no consideration at all. In Economics, these are called: Sunk Costs. The issue is not what you might have done or spent in the past, but how the thing can be made productive or provide benefit in the future. In the words of Miss Janet Jackson, “What have you done for me LATE-LY?”
Those who benefit from government’s largesse expect the institution to run on autopilot. They expect it to grow incessantly and for expenditures to trend forever in an upward trajectory. There is seldom, if ever, serious consideration of whether the objectives of the policy, program, or promulgation are being met either efficiently or effectively. Every benefit becomes an entitlement and supposed birthright. Every program is someone’s Sacred Cow, never to be altered, curtailed, or ended.
The political classes solicit the support of the populous to secure their power and to establish their legitimacy. They pander to inconsistent constituencies and to competing special interest groups. They tend to promise everyone everything, with eager beneficiaries — within a growing and expanding dependent class — always expecting something for (nearly) nothing. The societal demands grow unabated until resources are exhausted or until a limited and shrinking producer class is no longer ready, willing, or able to provide sufficiently. [See “National Debt,” which exceeds $36 Trillion.]
Trump opponents eagerly and proudly assert, “He is not MY President.” However, he was democratically and duly elected consistent with the Constitution. He is OUR President, like it or not. Democratic opponents are quick to point out his conspicuous flaws and notable shortcomings, but they are seemingly blind to the same or similar negative traits in their own preferred candidate(s).
Trump is a liar, cad, charlatan, and carnival barker. However, Joe Biden as a career politician, who lived on the public dole for half-a-century, was no less practiced, prolific, and pathological in his lies. Biden was summarily dismissed from his first presidential campaign for series of lies and plagiarism. In seeking a second term, Biden lied regarding his own capacity and competence.
Kamala Harris, along with other members of the former Administration and Democratic Party, eagerly and vociferously recycled, repeated, and regurgitated convenient and self-serving lies. They continued to lie unabashedly until their lies became so incredible as to be believable by no one. Their hypocrisies are deafening.
There is a bipartisan and almost universal mindset:
MY lying, morally-fluid, and narcissistic egomaniac is better than YOUR lying, morally-fluid, and narcissistic egomaniac, because mine does for ME and mine as opposed to YOU and yours.
Trump twice had the audacity to defeat the Democratic Heir Apparent. The Party and its adherents are disappointed, and they have committed themselves to assuring Trump’s failure. However, they are seemingly ignorant of their own copious failures, foibles, and flaws. There is no plan or commitment to build up and to make things better, only to tear down and destroy. They refuse to recognize that any and all failures are mutually destructive.
Successful cooperative effort requires mutualities of commitment, contribution, and benefit. Where those mutualities exist, disparate parties are motivated to come together voluntarily so as to advance their common interests. In such situations, the heavy hand of the state is likely superfluous and even counterproductive. In the absence of those mutualities, however, no amount of government interference or coercion is likely to make the endeavors successful.
Where those mutualities do not exist, proponents of government action seek to use the compulsory authority of the state and the coercive powers of government to force participation by necessary parties in transactions or relationships, in which the reluctant parties would not otherwise participate. The reluctant parties likely view the proposed transactions as disadvantageous or the resulting relationships as deleterious; nevertheless, the objective of would-be beneficiaries is to force such parties by and through state action to act contrary to their perceived interests.
Government is presented as a win-win situation, but almost invariably it is a win-lose proposition. For every privilege or benefit conferred by government upon a favored constituency or special interest group, there is nearly always a corresponding sacrifice or commensurate cost to be imposed, oftentimes upon some class of disfavored “others.” A unilateral or one-sided benefit is tantamount to Institutional Theft and Involuntary Servitude.
This is why government fails so regularly and routinely. Government is not a mechanism, which fosters and engenders cooperation, collaboration, compromise, or consensus. Government is at its most basic an instrument of brute force whereby an electoral majority (or controlling voting bloc) seeks to impose its self-serving will upon a reluctant minority (or other disfavored groups and individuals). There is seldom, if ever, anything more moral or noble in the machinations of the state.
Government should not be looked to as the arbiter of morality. Political minions and technocrats should not be viewed as: Messiah, Savior, or White Knight. Government is, at best, a necessary evil; therefore, government does best that does least. The issue is not having the wrong person or party in a particular office at a given point in time. The problem comes in commanding of government things, for which the institution is woefully ill-suited and which are entirely contrary to the inherent nature of the beast.
