Good Government!

I have about a thirty minute commute to and from my work, so I get to spend some quality time everyday with talk radio. I could opt for music or slightly more enlightening fare from public radio, but at the end of the day I feel like something with a little pepper in it.And that's what talk radio is all about, adding spice, often too much spice to the nettlesome issues of the day.

With all the chatter in recent weeks about the government shutdown possibilities, I hear rants from some of the more extreme goobers out there that such a thing would not be at all a bad thing. Such addled luddite thinking makes me groan, and that voluble folks keep popping off with it is noisome to the max.

A world without police or fire protection immediately raises some red flags. Not that crime would suddenly erupt, but over time the lack of enforcement would create dangerous scenarios, especially on the highways where a winner-take-all approach to driving already makes travel more hazardous than it ought to be. Fire would take it daily toll and more so as the neglect increased.

Then there's the trash collection. Anyone remember the trash strike in New York City many years ago. Let the trash trucks not show up for two weeks and I imagine all those folks who don't want government would be howling a slightly different tune. Much of what we know of effective government is about regular and effective service, or ought to be.

There's the little things we don't consider most of the time because they have become so standard. Food and water safety are presumed because of federal, state, and local governmental regulations which oversee that we aren't ingesting poisonous compounds on a daily basis, at least not those we don't want to ingest. The food scares out of China should give all anti-government yahoos a pause.

And then there's media. I'm always amused when talk radio boneheads yammer on about government regulation when their livelihoods exist almost exclusively because of governmental regulations which make radio broadcasting possible. Otherwise when the dope down the road jumps on the radio and makes noises I don't like I could with the power of the marketplace behind me erect a taller tower and drown his dumb ass out. But I can't, and it's because of government that I can't.

We all hate government when it sends us a bill to pay for its services. We all hate government when the people who run it do a horrible job, or even a mediocre one. But that doesn't mean we don't need governance, we just need good government. Why don't these yahoos preach for that, instead of the nihilistic claptrap they currently bray.

On another note I just ran across this great example of good governance from my own state. We need more of this practical talk. The irony that most folks in my state never voted for the man who will make such a profound difference in their lives is not lost.

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