Mark Shepard
Fairytale government
By Mark Shepard
The inability of our federal government to function in the real world is not simply that we elected the wrong people to run it; it is that we allowed our government to grow into a Super-Government that cannot be run by anyone. Like Superman, every time there is a need, problem or even a want we turn to Super-Government to save the day. We expect Super-Government to accomplish the unimaginable, and just like Superman, the only place the unimaginable can be accomplished is in an imaginary world.
Barrack Obama and the Democrats built their campaigns on the theme that the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress were not up to the task of running the government, and that changing the players was the solution. Of course the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress could not run the government they inherited, much less what they grew it into. Now, less than two years into the Democrats' rise to power, only Americans still living in the land of make-belief have any confidence that Barrack Obama and the Democrat Congress can effectively run our government.
As long as we elect people who are delusional enough to believe they can run our Super-Government, our nation's challenges will only continue to increase. Each day we witness Super-Government's ineffective "solutions" spring into action: creating smothering regulations, bloating government bureaucracies, and even taking over entire economic sectors. None of these solve anything, but like Superman emerging from a phone-booth with music blaring, arms crossed and cape flapping, their theater of noise and emotion distract us from the reality that Super-Government is incapable of providing real-world solutions.
Like an inefficient machine, Super-Government consumes large percentages of available resources simply to operate, leaving less for societal use. Super-Government interferes in the marketplace, squandering our fiscal wellbeing while practical solutions to our nation's challenges drift out of reach because the private resources are swallowed up by Super-Government pretending it is solving real problems.
Super-Government cannot function in the real world. No matter how much power government has, it is unable to provide real solutions to most problems. Haven't we endured enough bad results from our unsustainable, unhealthy and imprudent dependency on Super-Government?
Super-Government is truly our biggest national disaster because we have fooled ourselves into thinking that we have solutions to many problems, when in fact Super-Government solutions are illusions that actually interfere with creating real-world solutions.
It's time we stop looking for a Superman or Superwoman to save America. The success of a free nation is determined by its citizens, not its government. Running a real nation, blessed with real freedoms, and challenged with real problems, requires more than Super- Government's fantasy action figures can provide. "We the people" must accept that Super-Government does not work and that real solutions depend on us, not some imaginary Super-Government. We must constrain government to its constitutional limits so that it does not interfere with the creation of real-world solutions.
Ineffective government programs that have created an unstable dependency must be peeled back. Citizen efforts at innovation and enterprise must be allowed to succeed or fail in the market place. Entrepreneurs should not be taxed or regulated to death by government, but rather allowed to reap the benefits from ideas that succeed. This is how real solutions rise to the top and the quality of life is improved. Super-Government interference kills such innovation.
The most effective way to return government to a workable size is by creating citizen-based solutions that outperform expensive and ineffective government programs. For example, imagine the outcome if the collective energies of citizens fighting to improve government-controlled education were shifted toward development and implementation of private solutions. In time, government schools would be the exception rather than the norm, school taxes would plummet, and educational quality for Americans would improve as education became separated from entities with vested interests and agendas outside a good education.
Waiting and even working for government vouchers is counter-productive. It diverts energy away from more viable ideas, and money for vouchers all comes from the same source — the citizens. Vouchers continue to waste education dollars feeding the inefficient and all-too-often politically-motivated and power-hungry Super-Government.
Rebuilding America also requires we elect people who comprehend that Super-Government is a fantasy, and understand its encroachment on our responsibilities equates to encroachment on our rights. We must not again be seduced by politicians who claim they are better prepared to run our Super-Government. Individual freedom and prosperity are at the mercy of our willingness and ability to accept personal responsibility. Allowing Super-Government to take over our responsibilities limits freedom and opportunity, and that limits America.
Only by leaving fantasy Super-entities in the comic books and embracing our responsibilities as citizens of a free country, can we return government back to where it functions in the real world and release that human creativity that made America the most free and prosperous nation in history. This is the path to a bright future for us and for the generations of Americans who follow us. We can do it. It's our turn.
© Mark Shepard
July 16, 2010
The inability of our federal government to function in the real world is not simply that we elected the wrong people to run it; it is that we allowed our government to grow into a Super-Government that cannot be run by anyone. Like Superman, every time there is a need, problem or even a want we turn to Super-Government to save the day. We expect Super-Government to accomplish the unimaginable, and just like Superman, the only place the unimaginable can be accomplished is in an imaginary world.
Barrack Obama and the Democrats built their campaigns on the theme that the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress were not up to the task of running the government, and that changing the players was the solution. Of course the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress could not run the government they inherited, much less what they grew it into. Now, less than two years into the Democrats' rise to power, only Americans still living in the land of make-belief have any confidence that Barrack Obama and the Democrat Congress can effectively run our government.
As long as we elect people who are delusional enough to believe they can run our Super-Government, our nation's challenges will only continue to increase. Each day we witness Super-Government's ineffective "solutions" spring into action: creating smothering regulations, bloating government bureaucracies, and even taking over entire economic sectors. None of these solve anything, but like Superman emerging from a phone-booth with music blaring, arms crossed and cape flapping, their theater of noise and emotion distract us from the reality that Super-Government is incapable of providing real-world solutions.
Like an inefficient machine, Super-Government consumes large percentages of available resources simply to operate, leaving less for societal use. Super-Government interferes in the marketplace, squandering our fiscal wellbeing while practical solutions to our nation's challenges drift out of reach because the private resources are swallowed up by Super-Government pretending it is solving real problems.
Super-Government cannot function in the real world. No matter how much power government has, it is unable to provide real solutions to most problems. Haven't we endured enough bad results from our unsustainable, unhealthy and imprudent dependency on Super-Government?
Super-Government is truly our biggest national disaster because we have fooled ourselves into thinking that we have solutions to many problems, when in fact Super-Government solutions are illusions that actually interfere with creating real-world solutions.
It's time we stop looking for a Superman or Superwoman to save America. The success of a free nation is determined by its citizens, not its government. Running a real nation, blessed with real freedoms, and challenged with real problems, requires more than Super- Government's fantasy action figures can provide. "We the people" must accept that Super-Government does not work and that real solutions depend on us, not some imaginary Super-Government. We must constrain government to its constitutional limits so that it does not interfere with the creation of real-world solutions.
Ineffective government programs that have created an unstable dependency must be peeled back. Citizen efforts at innovation and enterprise must be allowed to succeed or fail in the market place. Entrepreneurs should not be taxed or regulated to death by government, but rather allowed to reap the benefits from ideas that succeed. This is how real solutions rise to the top and the quality of life is improved. Super-Government interference kills such innovation.
The most effective way to return government to a workable size is by creating citizen-based solutions that outperform expensive and ineffective government programs. For example, imagine the outcome if the collective energies of citizens fighting to improve government-controlled education were shifted toward development and implementation of private solutions. In time, government schools would be the exception rather than the norm, school taxes would plummet, and educational quality for Americans would improve as education became separated from entities with vested interests and agendas outside a good education.
Waiting and even working for government vouchers is counter-productive. It diverts energy away from more viable ideas, and money for vouchers all comes from the same source — the citizens. Vouchers continue to waste education dollars feeding the inefficient and all-too-often politically-motivated and power-hungry Super-Government.
Rebuilding America also requires we elect people who comprehend that Super-Government is a fantasy, and understand its encroachment on our responsibilities equates to encroachment on our rights. We must not again be seduced by politicians who claim they are better prepared to run our Super-Government. Individual freedom and prosperity are at the mercy of our willingness and ability to accept personal responsibility. Allowing Super-Government to take over our responsibilities limits freedom and opportunity, and that limits America.
Only by leaving fantasy Super-entities in the comic books and embracing our responsibilities as citizens of a free country, can we return government back to where it functions in the real world and release that human creativity that made America the most free and prosperous nation in history. This is the path to a bright future for us and for the generations of Americans who follow us. We can do it. It's our turn.
© Mark Shepard
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