College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Government

American democracy, the best money can buy!

For years now I have been writing and ranting about the lack of concern the American voter seems to have about real issues…..and that this lack of concern has given us the stalemate that we are experiencing in Washington today ……..

Lysander Spooner, a 19th century political theorist, saw supporters of government as three distinct groups…..

The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes—a large class, no doubt—each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a “free man,” a “sovereign”; that this is “a free government”; “a government of equal rights,” “the best government on earth,” and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change.

And there is not much more to add….in about 150 years not much has changed…..but I guess we need a simple definition of government…….the machinery through which collective decisions on behalf of the state usually by compromise….

If that definition is correct then the US does NOT have a functioning government…..sadly, there is NO little blue pill that can cure this dysfunction……

Reps are NOT governing for the people…they are governing for their interests and benefit……Englishman James Mill noted in 1825…..and Mill had a solution to this nagging problem…..

There can be no doubt, that, if power is granted to a body of men, called Representatives, they, like any other men, will use their power, not for the advantage of the community, but for their own advantage, if they can.If things were so arranged, that, in his capacity of Representative, it would be impossible for him to do himself so much good by mis-government, as he would do himself harm in his capacity of member of the community, the object would be accomplished. We have already seen, that the amount of power assigned to the checking body cannot be diminished beyond a certain amount. It must be sufficient to overcome all resistance on the part of all those in whose hands the powers of Government are lodged. But if the power assigned to the Representative cannot be diminished in amount, there is only one other way in which it can be diminished, and that is, in duration.

Mill, in the long winded fashion, is calling for term limits…….

The government of the US is NO longer the government our founders envisioned…..they did make the system so that any change would be gradual and NOT revolutionary…..but even at that, the system today is at a standstill….and that standstill can be deadly……nothing about the system is working….the country is suffering and all they do is bitch about a cultural or moral situation….none of which actually repairs any breakdowns in governance or the welfare of the people…..

The best government is one that governs least…..so they say…..but what do you call a government that is incapable of governing at all?  REPLACEABLE!