We expect too much of government

One reason that government reform fails, going all the way back to Babylon and Egypt and ancient Chin, is because people refuse to look at the basics. One of those is answering the question, “What should governments do?” What is the function of government? What do we want, what should we want government to do? In ancient and even fairly recent times, even the most tyrannical and totalitarian governments tried to perform all the functions that modern “civilization” expects them to do.

The liberated American State governments of 1776 and their new FedGov in 1787 did virtually none of the tasks we pile on them today – or which they grasp in a lust for power and money.

Is it any wonder that government agencies fail more and more in doing everything we expect them to do?

Which brings us to the point of today’s commentary. Let us riff off another commenter on current events online, and his thoughts about the current regime and The Donald.

Peter Zeihan is a very good geopolitical analyst. He is not, unfortunately, as good student of government and its foibles. He assumes rational thinking on the part of voters, government officials, and officers. And like so many of us, when looking at the modern state and governments, Peter does not go back to fundamentals.

He recently posted this:

“…you shouldn’t expect good policy from the Trump Administration.

“Following the purging of experienced US government officials, widespread dysfunction has broken out. The traditional flows of information have been severed; it used to start with technocrats that retain their positions across administrations due to their institutional knowledge > then deputy secretaries overseeing operations > then secretaries who pass the info along to the President. Well, many of those technocrats have been fired and replaced by political loyalists, sans expertise.

“Many agencies are left with inexperienced loyalists not simply at the helm, but throughout the entire senior management. The result? Dysfunction, an inability to respond to crises effectively, and weakened American power on the global stage.”

Peter makes some good points but he does not understand some basic facts.

First, as we point out above, guvmint, by its very nature, is ill-equipped to do most things – if not all things. It does not matter whether there are “experts” or “amateurs” who are in government offices – appointed or elected or born. Guvmint gonna mess it up!

Second, these technocrats whom Peter says are essential are the very Deep State – the permanent bureaucracy – which Americans need to fight. Yes, they are skilled. But skilled at what? Not things that Americans need or want governments to do. Trump 1.0 failed to get rid of them – and Trump 1.0 failed. Uncle Joe’s regime expanded their power – and Uncle Joe’s regime failed.

Third, Peter does not recognize that these technocrats being fired also have their political loyalties – generally loyalty to the Regressive regimes that first hired and appointed them: Clinton, Bush II, Obummer, and even Trump 1.0 and Uncle Joe’s puppetmasters. Being replaced by Trumpistas is not necessarily negative.

Fourth, when the institution itself is flawed and evil, institutional knowledge is NOT a benefit of the system: it perpetrates the continued flaws and evils. Organizations have personalities, and the greatest challenge to changing a personality is the membership: not the charter, not the mission, and definitely not the top leadership. If anything, the DOGE revelations show that the rot is deep, very deep. And must be rooted out.

Even attempts to reform government, if even partially based on fundamentals, is going to create turbulence: more inefficiency, even (a frustrating point) more spending, and more stupid mistakes. But this is the equivalent of making sausage. Or producing anything of value.

The final point to be noted is that reform seldom (if ever) succeeds.

But even a complete replacement will fail if we continue to try to make governments do more and more. And if we continue to reject the idea that human, mandatory government is at its heart nothing but a rebellion against Creation and its Creator, and at best a very dangerous servant, which must be firmly chained down.

READ MORE

Source: https://freedombunker.com/2025/03/29/we-expect-too-much-of-government/