What is the purpose of government?
More specifically, what is the purpose of our federal government?
And on a related note, is our current government doing things today that fit that purpose?
Yes, I have an answer below. But i don't want you to read it quite yet. Assuming you have the time, pop open the notepad on your computer and type that answer in. Take that and paste it into your comments before you respond to my answer. I kind of just want to see what people think about the purpose of government in general, not any particular administration.
Ok, if you're down to this point and you haven't at least thought about your answer, shame. Go back and read the instructions. For the rest of you, here's some somewhat unrelated images to separate the question from the answer.
Yeah, I've sunk to gratuitous horse humping pics. But the second pic is the payoff:
What is the purpose of government? That's an easy one. Boiled down to the essentials, it provides a framework for a society to function, protects the rights of its people, and functions in areas that cannot be addressed by individuals or private groups. And at the federal level, the individual should hardly know it exists in any way more than name.
Based on that, the Imperial Federal Government does provide a framework, is shaky on protecting the rights of its people, and functions in every damned part of our lives, important or not, and is so damned dominant that almost all political blogs talk about the Imperial Federal Government. So they're sucking ass.
It's human nature to come up with a law or program and rationalize it as a necessary role of government, be that health care, NASA (I'm way guilty here), roads, high speed rail, the FCC, the department of Education, Social Security and Medicare, another new aircraft carrier, drug laws, nuclear weapons, prohibition, and so on, and so forth. Some of the aforementioned definitely are legitimate functions of government, some may be, and some are simply insane to continue. One item on the list was amended to the Constitution, and then repealed. But that's why there is a framework and a reason for limiting the size and scope of the government, especially at the federal level. And until we develop the discipline and balls to actually take on the challenge of limiting an ever-growing control over our lives by saying no, even to things that are near and dear to our hears, the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, will continue to be less so until it is a government of the politicians, by the politicians, and for the politicians.
6 comments:
"What is the purpose of government? More specifically, what is the purpose of our federal government?"
The purpose of the Federal Government of the United States is to secure individual Freedom and Liberty by protecting its citizenry from threats both foreign and domestic. It achieves the former by way of the establishment of a voluntary military force. The latter is does primarily through the establishment of an impartial judiciary whose duty is to apply the law equally to its citizenry. While the bastardization of the "general welfare" clause continues unabated, going to ridiculously great lengths to protect the citizen from even the most trivial of threats, the fact remains that the vast majority of protections from these "threats" could be easily be resolved through an impartial judiciary. What's more, despite the onslaught of Federal regulation aimed at protecting the citizen from these ever increasing threats, there is little evidence to suggest that the citizen is any better protected with these Federal regulations than without.
"And on a related note, is our current government doing things today that fit that purpose?"
Most everything the current government does at present in its seeming effort to protect the citizen is completely antithetical to what its intended and actual purpose is (as succinctly put forth in the Constitution) which is establish Justice (no justice to be found in affirmative action or hate crime legislation),insure domestic Tranquility (nothing tranquil about unsustainable debt and declining purchasing power),
provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
Octopüß speaks with forked tongue.
Hoz about going back where you came from!
Soapster: That's exactly what I've been saying.
Chog: I am the hallmark of reason. Besides that, Soapster usually agrees with me.
Anon #1 (who bears a distinct resemblance to another commenter on another post wielding 8 limbs): A little off topic, but since it's well-written, I'll respond (and post on it further Monday):
I am tired of hyper-partisan, hyper-emotional rhetoric...
In general, I agree. Post after post of nothing but "Obama sucks" or "the GOP sucks, or "anybody sucks" tends to get pointless quick. However, the quote in question is a representation of what almost never shows up in this blog, only what is uttered privately as I watch speeches that piss me off for whatever reason (I say worse about McCain, actually). I can think of only a handful of posts where I've unleashed pure venom, and it's usually over the passage of some abomination of a bill (TARP and the 1st stimulus bill jump to mind).
Needless to say, I reserve the right to be occasionally hyper-partisan, but in general, I avoid such generally mindless anger.
1967: Octo is a much wiser sea dweller than most, usually gets what I'm saying, agree or disagree, and is always welcome.
Anon #2: Uh, spam anyone? Buh bye.
rw: (deleted for off-topic rantism)
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