Most of us wonder what would happen if we won the lottery. I also wonder what would happen if I were Dictator for a Day. What would I do?
Of course, most of us don’t like dictators… but now and then it seems our country needs a quicker way of getting things done. State and federal legislators can’t seem to accomplish much. Neither do numerous bureaucracies. While I would never propose a real dictator for a day (unless it was me, LOL), Dictator for a Day is a platform where I think aloud, muse, opine and/or launch a few ideas.
Many of these ideas aren’t new. Some are. I don’t propose them as ready-to-use, out-of-the-box solutions. They’re just ideas, to stimulate thought. You might like some, none or all.
Most were developed out of frustration with a system that doesn’t seem to be working, and that seems to work less each passing day.
I’m talking about our government(s) in all forms. When I write “government” I generally mean governments, be they federal, state or local. At all levels, government isn’t doing what it should be doing. And I think I know why. Government has taken on too much of a life all its own, behaving in its own best interest, rather than the public’s. Each agency, each department, each division is fiercely protective of itself and hell-bent-for-leather in assuring its perpetual existence, often at the expense of its effectiveness and, sometimes, its very mission. The servants are no longer subservient.
The servants also aren’t accountable. To err is human. Make enough mistakes in private industry and you’re shown the door. Yet rarely in government is anyone held accountable after a screw up. Life just goes on. Without accountability, there is no real pressure to work effectively, efficiently or to develop solutions.
This is happening everywhere, from the federal level down through state and municipal levels, even to lowly homeowner associations. All of them are seeking to expand their spheres of influence and dominion over all. Bureaucrats involved in rule making are unwilling to give up their authority. In fact, they seek to expand it, granting themselves evermore authority and usurping greater power than they ever were intended to have. Those opposing the rule makers are often crushed.
This phenomenon of ever-expanding yet non-working government became the genesis of what I termed my “Us Versus Them” theory several years ago. I think it may have been the 1970s when I read that, in Illinois, no fewer than 22 state agencies had arrest powers. What? More recently, Congress passed and President Biden signed into law a bill to double the size of the IRS, hiring 87,000 additional IRS agents. Again – What???
In the 1970s, when I said it’s “Us versus Them” my wife thought I was nuts. Now, she’s not so sure.
Part of government expansion occurs naturally. Populations increase. Technologies change. New industries arrive. New frontiers open. So some simultaneous growth of government is anticipated. But much of government’s growth is more insidious, and purely for the benefit of the government. Bigger bureaucracies are more powerful by their sheer size. And as they grow and add people, they need more power – more rules - to enforce all of the stuff the new people are doing. Consider this, the original bureaucracy of the federal government consisted only of three small departments – State, Treasury and War.[1]
It’s an old adage: every bureaucrat worth his or her salt knows the first responsibility of the bureaucracy is to expand the bureaucracy. All else comes after.
As a young news reporter covering the city of Milwaukee, I remember an interview with retired Mayor Henry Maier, the longest-serving mayor of Milwaukee. Maier was asked what he would do about a crisis under the new mayor’s watch. He never hesitated: “Appoint a blue-ribbon committee to study it and bury it under a whole new set of initiatives.” In other words, look like you’re solving the problem. Perception, rather than solution, was what mattered.
That’s why the same old problems continue. It’s why solutions aren’t being found. Politicians, and bureaucrats, are far too interested in how it plays in Peoria than in meaningful outcomes in Milwaukee.
I would have no problem with big government if big government created big solutions. But it doesn’t. It simply grows. It is unnecessary growth that could be alleviated if we can get at the root causes. It’s not a matter of overthrowing the government to create change. We simply need to vote the right candidates into office and kick them out before they become entrenched and dangerous.
Who those candidates are will be up to you to decide, at the ballot box.
It’s will be like diverting a flooding stream. It's not easy. But if the stream is supposed to be watering your garden and it’s actually submerging and destroying your home, diverting the stream, no matter how difficult, is worthwhile.
[1] The Development of the Bureaucracy https://www.ushistory.org/gov/8a.asp