The Patriot Post® · Government IS the Problem

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” So said Ronald Reagan in his first Inaugural Address. His quote came to mind as we considered the latest Gallup tracking poll of political issues concerning Americans. Last month, immigration was the greatest concern among voters; now, it is once again government.

Hot Air’s Andrew Malcom observes, “The election of Donald Trump as president has also played a role in the listing of government as top national problem. In every month since he took office, at least 19 percent have listed government as the No. 1 problem. This has been largely fueled by Democrats.”

Of course that discontent is fueled by Democrats. They are the party of government — Big Government — and when they’re not in charge of that government, it drives them to mental illness.

But there’s a lesson here for all Americans. Government is the number one problem because government is so big. It encroaches on every aspect of modern life, whether it’s what kind of health insurance you can buy or what kind of light bulb you use at home. Thus, too many people of both political parties put their ultimate faith in who controls either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, because vast swaths of our lives depend on it. Too many Americans demand that their pet issue be ultimately and forever decided at the federal level, by whichever branch gives them the best perceived advantage.

Our Founders did not intend such a system. Reagan again captured that vision in his famous “Time for Choosing” speech, in which he said, “This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”

And that’s to say nothing of the quality of character of those intellectual elites. In a time when even the top officials of our nation’s law enforcement agencies are nothing but political hacks, why would anyone trust government? Why wouldn’t Americans view the government as a huge problem?

As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” And that is precisely why Americans view government as a problem. If only voters would stop paradoxically looking to it as the solution to everything, and instead return us to constitutionally limited government as established by our Founders.