The Wrecking Ball
A metaphor for what is wrong with government and politics today
The recent trend of bloggers and others complaining about the results of the last election has helped me find the language to bring to light a very important concept. As with many of my best posts, this one actually started as a comment.
Here’s the concept I try to get people with whom I discuss the results of the election to understand:
The problem with the government as it is presently constituted is not that the wrong people are in control of it, or that it’s headed in the wrong direction. These things may be true, but they are really beside the point.
The problem with the government is that it presumes to have the rightful authority to control parts of our lives that do not affect other people.
The government that presumes to have the authority to tell me what kind of contractual relationship I can enter into with an insurance company (ie, all the regulations government puts on health insurance providers) is the same government that presumes to have the authority to stop consenting adults from having any sort of contractual relationship they wish (ie, same-sex marriage).
The government that presumes to have the power to restrict gun ownership to people who pose no threat to law-abiding citizens is the same government that presumes to have the power to restrict the use of medical marijuana and other drugs by people that pose no threat to anyone but themselves.
The government that presumes to have the right to take people’s property with threat of force (ie, confiscatory taxation) is the same government that presumes to have the right to give that money to corporations and special interests relabeled as defense contracts, faith-based initiatives, or industry bailouts.
The pendulum may swing one way or the other at any given time, but once swinging, it will destroy most anything it touches – a veritable societal wrecking ball. The reason you are now noticing how bad the wreckage can be is that you now see that wrecking ball destroying your “house” – the issues you hold more dear – legal protection of abortions, equal rights for homosexuals, and equitable wealth redistribution, among others.
But let me assure you, people on the other side of the political road are just as scared of that wrecking ball when its in their own house, trying to restrict constitutionally granted rights to self-armament, raising taxes to pay for welfare programs that do more harm than good, regulating a free economy that works much better on its own.
I think that it is wonderfully poetic justice that the imminent destruction of that wrecking ball now looms over your house. Maybe you will come to realize that this is the same ball you were using to destroy that house across the street a few years ago. And just maybe this will open your eyes to what you very much helped create – a government that presumes authority to control contractual relationships, decide what you can and cannot buy, even when it affects no one else negatively, and decide from whom and to whom to give money that they take with threat of force.
If you want that great wrecking ball of government to forever leave you and your house alone, then you also have to abandon your desires to take down that house across the street. Or, if you really want to continue trying to destroy that house, you could at least have enough foresight enough to use a smaller wrecking ball, on a single room.
In case I lost anyone in the metaphor, I will restate the above in more straightforward language. If you want people to leave the rights you hold dear intact, it is only fair to also leave the rights they hold dear intact. But, if you insist on trying to take away rights others hold dear, do so with caution, and do it only at the state level. This way, fewer people will get hurt when you screw up. And if your idea really is so good, the entire nation can follow suit if they wish – but leave it up to them. If you can learn fro this election, instead of just redoubling your efforts to shove that wrecking ball back across the street, then maybe the last 70-odd years of ever-worsening destruction won’t all have been in vain.
Bobby, Chris, Bernie, Larry… Here’s to not giving up on you.
