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A comment by Maynard

You may know that the District of Columbia goes essentially unrepresented in Congress. See Wikipedia for details. The Wiki article is full of details and arguments and counterarguments, but the bottom line is the D.C. status is specified in the Constitution.

When I was in public high school, the history book they gave me (and I suspect they’re not teaching it this way these days) explained it this way: Since D.C. was created to be the seat of the Federal government, and the residents were primarily there, directly or indirectly, in service of the Federal government, it would be a conflict of interest for these residents to elect that government. With the D.C. people weighing in, you would be pushing toward a government that exists to elect and serve itself rather than the nation. (See my earlier blog note about how, in these days of economic crisis, Washington is unique in its low unemployment rate. Being the government city is not without advantages — and the money that keeps Washington rolling along comes out of the pockets of the rest of us.)

There is always some legislation under consideration that would give D.C. political clout. Proponents make principled arguments for why we must do this for the sake of disenfranchised citizens and taxpayers. But, as is usually the case, the underlying motivations are base and self-serving. D.C. would be a Democrat stronghold, so the Democrats want it to vote, while Republicans want to maintain the status quo. The reason the Democrats haven’t pulled off this coup is because of that pesky Constitution, which they haven’t yet managed to completely neutralize.

I mention this because, with the growth of geographically distributed mega-government, more and more of our people are slipping into the compromised framework. The SEIU and the teachers’ unions are prime examples of organizations that feed at the public trough while at the same time wielding a huge amount of political power through their voting numbers and the vast funds they recycle back into the political system. The government’s power to elect itself has become a huge factor in tilting the political playing field away from Main Street, and making America less and less a government of the people.

We came to this point because government has metastasized into a Frankenstein monster (forgive the mixed metaphors!) that would be ruled illegal if anyone actually respected the Constitution. Inch by inch, step by step, government has burst through the Constitutional redlines and come crashing into our lives and our industries…always for enlightened reasons, of course, and continually setting new precedents for incursions which, having been allowed once, must again and again be allowed in the future.

Can the people take America back from government gone wild? You see why this is an uphill battle. The people that work for a living have heretofore found themselves outmaneuvered by the ones that vote for a living. You’ve all been too busy dragging your carcasses to work to counter the antics of our civil servants. You’ve paid your tributes to Caesar and you’ve shrugged off Caesar’s jabs and insults and carried on with your life. This has gone on for so long that both you and Caesar have come to regard this state of affairs as the natural order of things. And that would be okay, except that the strain of carrying a bloated Caesar and his ever-growing entourage has finally brought you to your knees. The sting of Caesar’s riding crop on your back no longer makes your fear overcome your weariness and frustration. Thus the people awaken to the realization that our precious republic has been lost. They open their eyes and see the helm of the ship of state has been commandeered by criminals and lunatics.

What comes next? I can’t say, but I imagine it won’t be easy. We seem destined to be caught in one of those historic upheavals that will throw us all, both friend and foe, for a loop.

I suppose it’s mundane and anticlimactic of me to mention this detail. But I think there was a reason that the residents of D.C. were shut out of the political process. The government must represent the people and not itself. And, likewise, I would argue that the SEIU and teachers’ unions and all the other entities that comprise Big Gov’t Inc. have no business acting as political advocates. If you’re feeding at the trough, you don’t get to run the farm. It’s that simple. And if we find ourselves rebuilding and reconstructing a new government somewhere down the line because this one has ground to a halt, this is a principle to keep in mind.