Major
Initiatives
Reduce
the Size of Our Government
Get
More of Our Citizens to Participate in Our Government
Repeal the Sixteenth
Amendment of the United States Constitution
Reduce the Size of Our Government
Our
government is just the right size when it does what we want it to do, and
does it well.
When
it protects us against foreign aggression without the loss of our loved ones
to do it, it is neigh on to perfect. When it delivers our mail on time
each day at a reasonable price, it is doing just fine. When our food
is fresh and the amounts we buy are measured fairly and accurately so that
we get what we paid for, we are glad that our government inspectors are on
the job.
There
are dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of things that our government
does for us for which we may be thankful. That said, is that what we really
want for ourselves; a government that does it all, or that at least does so
very much for us; that it takes the responsibility for being our virtual if
not our actual caretaker; that it provides a future for us while encouraging
us to live with little care for our future than the one it guarantees; that
lets us eat, drink, drive, play, gamble and live in general to excess with
the certain knowledge that whatever we do to ourselves, however we abuse our
bodies, our minds and perhaps even our very souls, our government will be
there to pick up the pieces or clean up the mess we made of our lives and
at seemingly no cost to us.
The
differences regarding where we might want our government to be there for us
and where we might not, lie in the spaces between parts of our lives over
which we can, that is over which we are able to, and are willing to exert
control and assume responsibility, and those parts, in which stronger people
or groups of people would or do ride roughshod over everyone in their way
with no regard to anyone else's safety and wellbeing.
While
each of us should be responsible for not smoking and should not expect all
kinds of free medical services when we have smoked all our lives long, or
for the longest parts of our lives, without regard for what our smoking does
to ourselves or anyone else around us, our government can and should be there
to help protect us from unscrupulous business people who manipulate innocent
youngsters or unwitting adults into becoming virtually enslaved to the products
they sell. Of course, there are those who are able to wrench themselves free
from the clutches of tobacco through their own inner strength, and to those
people we must figuratively, if not actually, tip our hats, and point to them
as some type of positive role models for others still stuck in the grasp of
their additions to emulate to some degree.
So,
how big does our government need to be to do what we need it to do while not
doing more than we want it to do? And, once we determine what that size is,
or what it should be, how do we effectively reshape our government with the
least amount of discomfort to those of us who may need to adjust to the new
trimmer and, in our thinking, healthier governing body?
The
answer is to be found in where and how we draw the lines of individual responsibility
and the lines of mutual communal caring. That is, clearly determining the
things for which each of us will assume direct and complete responsibility
and those things for which we agree to turn to each other, that is to our
government, as a voluntary united society, because not to do so would expose
each of us to dangers and forces beyond our individual capabilities.
How
do we do it? We must look at every aspect of our government and, without creating
any "sacred cows" or saying, "Well, we've always done it this
way", we need to identify where our personal responsibilities have been
allowed to be circumvented and where our need for the protections only available
from the community as a whole, that is from our government, are needed. Along
the way, we must evaluate the effectiveness of the government we have created
in the areas in which we need its protective services. This evaluation must
then be translated into a process that will enable our government to be modified
so it will do what we need it to do with efficiency and effectiveness.
Get More of Our Citizens to Participate in Our Government
If
the idea of getting more of our citizenry personally involved in our government
sounds contradictory to our desire to reduce the size of our government, it
is because it is normally assumed that more people getting involved in government
means more government employees, more departments, more managers and more
budget items.
We
envision "task force involvements" of citizens who can and will
voluntarily accomplish short term projects or jobs at no compensation, save
for the good feelings that come from doing what is needed for the community-at-large,
and then going back to their private lives until needed again by the rest
of us; our government. So, in this way of thinking, our government becomes
a "get-it-done" facilitator rather than the actual "doer"
of the things that need to be done and that it and only it can accomplish.
This
approach is not new. However, it has been eclipsed by making what used to
be volunteers into fulltime workers. What used to be temporary forces became
permanent departments. Completed projects should have resulted in the disbanding
of the organization that accomplished it. Instead, other projects, perhaps
not as necessary as the original, perhaps not necessary at all, were identified
and assigned to the about-to-be defunct and soon to be dissolved group of
workers to keep them working. It may have been the nice thing to do, but it,
and many more situations like it, are what have resulted in the oversized
government we find ourselves criticizing at times and thankful fore at others.
Do
we dare "break what ain't broken?" It is our belief that we can
change our government without causing a revolution and without "shooting
ourselves in the foot" either. If each of us takes on the responsibilities
that individuals can and should assume, and if those of us who are able will
participate in accomplishing government needed tasks from time-to-time, our
government can be and will be reduced in size and we will be healthier and
happier one and all of us.
