To What End?

We want government to solve problems for us. We ignore the fact that government solutions aren’t that at all but rather laboratory Petri dishes for the culture in which the law of unintended consequences is available for viewing. The solutions are not solutions at all but simplistic band-aids in response to people clamoring for some sort of ill-defined “justice”…and for the incumbent to get re-elected. Ronald Reagan said it so concisely that it is a wonder more people didn’t learn from it. “Government isn’t the solution, it is the problem.”

Yet, if we expect government to fix things for us, you might believe that we would have a system which would encourage the best and brightest to devote a portion of their lives to public service. You would have to believe that giving of your time, your labor and your treasure in the quest to gain the public’s confidence and trust would be a rewarding experience. Much like military service, you would expect the recipients to be grateful and respectful when you seek to govern. You might expect it, but increasingly it is apparent that you would be wrong.

Consider what is going on in the Presidential campaign. The question that immediately comes to mind is why would anyone ever subject themselves to this sort of vicious, petty, malignant sort of discrediting? Why would anyone of intellect, talent and experience want to give up a successful, respected life and enter the public arena to be the subject of lies, distortions and innuendo designed not to illuminate but to drag the candidate as deep into the morass of disgusting behavior as possible.

The justification is supposedly “vetting” of the individual. But that would be an act of verification of credentials, not of building a web of distortions regarding your past and the past of everyone you love. It should reasonably be a check that you really did get that degree, that you haven’t been convicted of a felony, that you are not clinically insane. That would be reasonable and one would tolerate that quite nicely.

But, that isn’t what we’ve got, is it? Frankly I’m disgusted at this carnival. I am sick and tired of the National Enquirer form of journalism that permeates even the major networks and metro newspapers. This is sophomoric to the extreme. It’s gotcha at the level of elections to captain of the cheerleading squad.

It is increasingly irrelevant to the debate on doing anything for our society and nation. More importantly, it is counterproductive to what should be the goal of making service in your government a desirable goal for the best among us.