There is No “Good” in Government

A couple of days ago I was taken to task by someone whose opinion I generally respect, even when we disagree.  It was over voting.  Let me quote the two relevant passages:

When there are two wrong choices, and at least one right choice, it doesn’t matter to me if nearly everyone else is making the wrong choice. I’m not the boss of them. I have to answer to my own conscience, not peer pressure.

And

In voting R or D, you are *voting* for evil.

Let’s unpack this.

In the first quotation it is apparent that the act of voting is not considered evil.  That voting one’s conscience is righteous and good, even if it’s tilting at windmills, but voting for one of the two parties that’s actually going to win is EVIL.

It’s my understanding that the Spoonerite wing of the anarcho-capitalists consider voting itself to be an act of evil, and to my thinking they’re right.

Government is evil. Government is the concentration of power over others into the hands of a few.  Governments have the power to do things – and get away with them – that individual citizens would go to jail for (or be strung up for).  Government is not good.  Government cannot love you.  Government cannot care about you.  Government is going to be some group of assholes interested in having their hands on the levers of that power.  But Government is a necessary evil, because without it – despite the fantasies of the anarchists – someone is going to have the power of life-and-death over you, against which you will have little to no recourse.

Our Democratic Republic was designed to limit the reach of that power as much as practicable.  Two-plus centuries of entropy has eroded many of the protections initially installed, but it’s still the best we’ve got. In our system of government as it stands today, we have a two-party system.  The parties have changed over time (I certainly hope they both do again in the near future), but one of those two established parties will have its hands on the levers this go-around.  Yes, both R and D are evil, no question, but one’s going to win.  Voting “Other” no matter how much it assuages your conscience will have no effect – and voting is STILL EVIL, regardless of who you vote for.  You’re voting to put that person in a position of power over others.  (Which may explain why the majority of eligible voters stay home.)

“What if they gave a war and nobody came?” someone once asked.  “Well, then the war would come to you!” was the reply.  What happens if you vote your conscience?  You get one of the other two anyway.  This is not to discourage votes of conscience, absolutely not.  It’s to discourage feelings of moral superiority over those of us with a different worldview.

Quote of the Day – Larry Corriea (again)

This may sound crazy, but just remember. If you are on the right you share collective guilt for every bad thing which has ever happened, even if it was done by people on the left. And if you are on the left, you are free from sin because you Care Harder.

On the individual level, if you are on the right, you are responsible for things that other people’s ancestors did 200 years ago. But if you are on the left, you aren’t responsible for what you are doing right now.

Stunning how that works, isn’t it?

Now for Something Completely Different

First, read this:  What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right

Excerpt:

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town.  Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health.  That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, “a fecalized environment.”

In plain English: s— is everywhere.  People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust – onto you, your clothes, your food, the water.  He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water.  Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause organ failure.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a few decades later, liberals would be pushing the lie that Western civilization is no better than a third-world country.  Or would teach two generations of our kids that loving your own culture and wanting to preserve it are racism.

RTWT.  Then read this classic from 2002:  Let Africa Sink.

Quote of the Day – Stephen Kruiser Edition

From his daily Morning Briefing, titled:  Defund the Public Education Leftist Indoctrination Mills

While I have never been one to view anything as an existential crisis, I’ve more and more come to believe that the upcoming presidential election will be a watershed moment for the United States. If Joe Biden wins, it will be the complete triumph of decades of public education indoctrination. The drift of so many young Americans towards socialism and anti-American sentiment is the direct result not being taught real American history, but being fed a leftist line that seeks to rewrite and/or whitewash much of what made this country great.

Do read the whole thing, but seriously, Stephen?  Now?  You’re a pundit.  I’m just the average guy, and I figured that out a few years ago.  Defunding public education isn’t enough.  We need to nuke the site from orbit until the rubble bounces, and salt the Trinitite.  Public education isn’t “fixable.”  The problem isn’t the schools, its the people who run them.  We have to get them away from the children.

And for those of you who ask “Well, what do we replace them with?” please read Education, Societal Division and a Proposal

51 Years Ago Today

Man first landed on the Moon:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1SzgGhMKc]
I have become convinced that the United States peaked on this day, fifty years ago. The decay had already become apparent, but we as a nation carried off the single most difficult, incredible effort in human history.  I’m blessed to have been alive during that time.