Government Arrogance...

When teaching theories of "Government Failure" (ie, why Government action is almost always less efficient than private action) in my Macroeconomics classes, one of the eye-opening features of these classes to most students is that it doesnt matter which political party is in power. Government doesn't get better based on whether your President or Governor or Senator is Republican, or Democrat, or Liberal, or Conservative. Government failure - and its arrogance - is the Nature of the Beast, regardless of who is in power.

Government arrogance tells a single mom struggling on welfare to sit down and wait her turn in a dehumanizing box of a room to get her check. Government arrogance insists that she be subjected to a surprise drug test, just to reinforce her self-image as sub-human. Liberals call the former 'compassion;' Conservatives call the latter "responsibility." Regular People without a political agenda see both for what it is - arrogance.

A newly unemployed (and newly uninsured) HIV-positive man is directed to the local government-created AIDS Service Agency ("ASO") for approval in order to get his next dose of medications ($3,000/month) through the State Program. But if the ASO determines that he is not 'supportive' of the agency's illegal and unethical financial transactions, he is rejected. And if he applies to the State directly for help, he is told to wait for processing - even though missing a single dose may render that medication ineffective for the rest of his life. Liberals see this as compassionately covering people with public insurance; conservatives just complain about the money being spent. But the Pharamcist - a "regular person," a human being, slips the man some pills without charge to carry him over until the bureaucracy moves on his application.

A family facing Thanksgiving with an oil tank on empty and an outside thermometer reading of 20 degrees pleads with the local "Community Services Agency" for emergency fuel assistance. They are told there is an "intake appointment" available six weesk down the road. Liberals see this as the "social safety net;" conservatives are harshly unmoved by their plight.

Government responds to human crises in New Orleans and Haiti after "assessing damage" and "securing the area," while days pass by and critical hours - and lives - are lost. Liberals and Conservatives both refer to this as "Planning," both actually believing in the Super-smartness of people once they are hired by government, and both skeptical of the inherent strength and ingenuity of 'mere people' to help in their own rescue. Meanwhile, neighbors help neighbors as The Experts "plan" the rescue effort.

Homeless people, previously living in tents on the outskirts of town, set up some plywood walls and get themselves a heater to stay warm in the winter. Government Arrogance requires that they meet building codes, but has no available beds for them if they are shut down. Private individuals raise the money and secure a rental storefront to provide beds...in spite of government sputtering about the need to "license" such facilities.

A police officer, quite impressed with her power to pull over someone with a headlight out, detains a man and his daughter for an hour as she runs reports and harasses both of them. She lies about a supposed "Restraint Order" in her computer records on the man (later proved false by the State Police), which supposedly turned up on a routine drivers license check (later contradicted by the State Police), and pulls the daughter out of the car, questioning and asking her to prove she really *is* the man's daughter. Oh, yes, the man and his daughter are of different races...and a criminal justice expert will later remark, "Oh, they figured you were pimping her..."

Real Stories. Recent stories. Stories with which I have first-hand experience. Stories of government arrogance...arrogance exhibited by both Republicans and Democrats, by both Conservatives and Liberals in their over-bearing partisanship and insistence on their own righteousness in how to impose help on the masses.

Pundits wonder how true-blue Massachusetts could possibly be rejecting Democrat Martha Coakley for conservative Republican Scott Brown. They wonder how a health care bill - a promise that helped catapult Obama to the Presidency - can be so opposed in even the most liberal areas of the country.

How? GOVERNMENT ARROGANCE.

A Governor insisting on appointing Kennedy's replacement rather than follow the existing law requiring an election. A President insisting on Christmas Eve and midnight votes on a 2,000 page bill that most congressmen admit to not having read. Congressional insistence that every American be required to purchase health insurance from a private company, all while prohibiting non-profits from forming to provide insurance. Military insistence that while straight soldiers can sow their oats while on leave and receive free STD treatments afterwards, decorated, monogamous, partnered gay military members must remain closeted or face ejection and loss of pensions. A New Hampshire state legislative committee deciding to ban self-defensive weapons from state property, in spite of the entire legislature saying otherwise.

Government Arrogance. People are tired of it.