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Quote of the Day: Government
“If the average man had had his way there would probably never have been any state. Even today he resents it, classes death with taxes, and yearns for that government which governs least. If he asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous. In the simplest societies there is hardly any government.” – Will Durant
We just spent four weeks deciding who would be Speaker of the House. At least that is how it felt to political junkies. In reality it was four days and 15 votes. For those of you really into political history that isn’t even close to a record.
However much we on Ricochet were absorbed by this drama, the average man Durant talked about did not even notice. In my view that is a good thing. Because in the overall scheme the Speaker fight is not that important. It was going to get settled eventually and then (as Jon Gabriel noted) “the House can finally get back to the important business of borrowing several trillions of dollars for unnecessary projects.“
Did it demean the dignity of the House? The House of Representatives has lacked dignity for years. As if a body that contains luminaries such as AOC, Maxine Waters, and Adam Schiff has dignity. Did it keep the House from doing the people’s business? Picking a Speaker is the people’s business and it should be more than a rubber-stamp activity. God save us from politics in the House of Representatives, is what that claim says. Did it have the risk of leaving Congressional staffers and elected members of both houses unpaid? For me, that is a feature, not a bug. Let them understand what everyone in the private sector goes through routinely.
Moreover, this type of inside baseball politics is not of concern to the average man. It does not affect him. His or her life goes on regardless. That is a good thing if you believe the government that governs least governs best. Being obsessed with politics at the expense of your life is not healthy – either individually or as a society. Let us tend to our jobs at hand.
Published in Group Writing
The way I see it, this has greatly enhanced the dignity of the House. There was meaningful debate and a hard-fought battle. IMHO, much of the “dignity” noise is from people who don’t understand checks and balances, separation of powers, or the difference between the House and the Senate anyway. They think that representative government should flow with an efficient unity of purpose, which is *explicitly* guarded against by the Constitution.
I agree that there are a lot of those people aout there. Perhaps we can explain it to people in our sphere without becoming tiresome by saying that lively, serious debate in the House is a feature, not a bug, and it’s even MORE important when the debate is about how they will be allowed to debate in the first place.
That is part of what I meant when I wrote, “Picking a Speaker is the people’s business and it should be more than a rubberstamp activity. ” The House needs more of that kind of debate. Joe and Jill Average don’t need to worry it though. Congress does.
That’s Doctor Jill Average.
We’ve had two periods with Pelosi as Speaker and the only instance of debate that I can recall was some demands made once by “the Squad” and I would not call that instance open or serious. Look to the “Jan 6 Committee” to understand the difference.
Yeah, those Ed.Ds tend to get real starchy about that worthless degree.
It is the ignorance of the average man that has allowed for the holding of prisoners without due process and for the clownishly transparent corruption of our media filling empty heads with dirty lies and for the replacement of the rule of law with the rule of the Deep State, bad pharma, the banks, Xi, and the Biden crime family. It is in that swamp that McCarthy has flourished. At the same time, moderation in all things. It does no good to ruin ones life and tarnish ones soul by drifting into obsession.
We have very little hope of effecting politics in Washington, where we contend with hundreds of millions and global mega-actors. We always have the most potential for influence at the local level. As volunteer election monitors, judges, as volunteers knocking on doors for candidates you’ve actually met, conversed with, maybe even shared a meal with. Our political culture will not change from the top down. And, while we are on the topic, where do you bank?
Not sure what you are asking here. I always have tried to bank locally but it keeps disappearing and so gets more difficult. This, in my perception, is one of the big weapons used by big government to eliminate local small business enterprise.
That was keyed to the mention of “the banks”, by which I meant the upper tier banks with national and international influence. Notoriously contemptuous of the distress of the hoi polloi and positively synonymous with appeasing Xi, spreading Woke, promoting the Reset, and the rest. I applaud your tenacity in finding local institutions with community investments, this is my philosophy as well. In the last thirty years it has been harder and harder to find a truly local bank, and they get snapped up by “the banks” faster and faster.
Where we bank and where we do business is more important than what we tweet. That was my only point with that reference.
The pair of them are pulling the average down.
The whole system is about stealing from each other and pushing people around. The power is excessively centralized, which is terrible and makes everything worse. I’m addicted to listening to coverage and analysis of it, but really, if you don’t distain all these people etc. you are doing it wrong.
This costs money, but these are two very good explanation of why government is a joke.
https://www.grant-williams.com/podcast/the-end-game-ep-41-mike-taylor/
https://www.grant-williams.com/podcast/shifts-happen-episode-four/
Both have transcripts. This guy has 5000 subscribers.
This is the first tweet in that series