Spend four decades building the case that the federal government is a hindrance to personal freedom and economic prosperity and, sooner or later, people will think anybody can run it and will elect themselves an entertaining moron to do so. Spend four decades building the case that the federal government can’t do anything right and, sooner or later, it will forget how.
Government, like a hammer, is a tool, as the late Molly Ivins used to say. Like any other tool, there is a right way and a wrong way to use it, and that depends on the competence of the person using it. You can use it to build a house or you can use it to break your thumb. Alas, now, in the middle of a global pandemic, we seem to be governed by people compelled to hit themselves over the head with it, time after time, until blissful unconsciousness reasserts itself and they don’t have to think about the rest of us for a while.
Charles P. Pierce—excerpt from ESQUIRE column.
