The saddest was the loss of Adam Smith in NC 11. He was a genuinely good candidate, a former Green Beret of proven heroism during the hurricane relief. Instead, we will either continue with our loser non-performing incumbent, or trade him for a Democrat in what has been one of the reddest districts in the country. They have a reasonable chance even here this year between the poverty of the Republican candidate, a history of loser Republican candidates here, and of course the intense unpopularity of Donald Trump among those who oppose him.
For the most part I find elections a reminder of why I favor eliminating government from existence as much as possible. I usually would prefer not to be governed by any of the candidates, nor any of the bureaucrats that they pragmatically end up actually transferring power to so they can get back to fundraising. The government that governs best governs least.
8 comments:
Amen. And it has gotten worse as the objective of gov seems to have changed from providing a system of law to resolve disputes and provide for the national defense, into system of providing payments for ones supporters, and finally into a club to use on the opposition.
There are no shared goals anymore. Just a struggle for power.
Per Raven's comment:
A quote from Eric Hoffer comes to mind. Although he was primarily writing about social / progressive movements, I believe that it easily lends itself to a general description of the historical lifespan of governments, as well.
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
(The Temper of Our Time," publ. 1966.)
To CC's Hoffer quote, I'm currently reading The "Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World" by James Burnham. He was a leftist but thought Communism had failed and that he had a better description of how things would play out. This edition has a forward by George Orwell. While his analysis of capitalism is as bad as any communists, fpr the rest of it, he may have been more correct than not. It's worth a read.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1839013184?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1
Douglas, re: Burnham on managers. Thanks for the reference!
That was written in 1941? I wonder what he would make of today's burgeoning government bureaucracies, and the corruption(?) for political purposes of the 501(c)(3) NGO entity status, among so many other developments since....
In my readings on economics, I've been impressed with those authors of past decades (centuries, even), who were already so aware of the conflicts between economic systems. ...the pros and cons of each, and the progression, the event-lines, along which they travel (backwards as well as forwards.)
Many years ago, I read Burnham's "Suicide of the West" (1964): I should re-read it to see how accurately (or not) I recollect what it says.....
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5912348M/Suicide_of_the_West
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burnham#:~:text=%5B24%5D-,Ideas,-%5Bedit%5D
Our local elections were a mixed bag. I was pleased that the County Judge was re-elected. Some of the other races were mildly disappointing, but none was a disaster. I'm mostly satisfied with the state and federal races. The Cornyn-Paxton fight will be a hoot.
Ah, that too looks like an interesting read. Thank you, good trade!
The government that governs best governs least.
YES.
Our local and state run-off is in late May, the weekend before Memorial Day. I suspect turnout will be light. As I told the government class, "Don't you wish you had a business making signs and printing political mailers?" I held up ten of the flyers that had been delivered in the past three days, all from out-of -town PACs. Two of the students thought having a flyer and sign-on-a-stick business would be a license to print money in election years.
LittleRed1
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