Political Futures

Columnist Jeff Jacoby: “If Obama were the CEO of a private company, writes George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux, ‘he would be sued, publicly lambasted by all the major media, perhaps hauled before an admittedly grandstanding Congressional committee, and possibly prosecuted, convicted, fined, or even imprisoned for fraudulent misrepresentation.’ But politics isn’t the marketplace, and politicians are held to a different standard. We entrust elected officials with far too much power, then routinely fail to hold them accountable when they abuse their power and betray that trust. Ultimately the only solution to the problem of faithless politicians is to put less faith in politicians. For as government gets bigger, citizens get smaller – and public servants become impossible to control.”