Every day, there are incidents where some government goon (excuse me, “kind and gentle, loving, helpful polite public servant”) does something incredibly stupid to someone. Sometimes they do it of their own initiative. (Including “we need more tickets, people, need the revenue!”) And sometimes because of some “do-gooder” ratting out someone for something that ticks them off.

For example, from Wyoming a few weeks back comes this bizarre tale of government overreach, stool pigeons, and stupid regulations. The Cowboy State Daily reports that an aerial photo of the “sacred” Medicine Wheel in the Big Horn Mountains (a historical tourist attraction located on public land) has been condemned by various do-gooder Mrs. Grundy types, certain that it had been taken using a drone.

And flying a drone over an AmerInd religious or sacred site is against the law and numerous federal regulations. It apparently isn’t a crime to fly one over a christian or muslim or jewish sacred site, like a building or a shrine or a cemetery, of course. That would be a violation of the “sacred” idea of separation of church and state. (There may be an exemption of it is an officially black christian site.)

Just one more example of too much government. (It wasn’t a drone, by the way.)

Everyone knows of the stories of cops or the local health department writing tickets (or arresting) some second-grader for an illegal lemonade stand. Or some church group getting busted for handing out “un-FDA-approved” sandwiches to homeless people in a park. It is a daily occurrence. Too much government.

Just a few days ago, Gallup issued a news release about the latest results of one of their annual surveys. The highlights?

• 54% believe federal government is too powerful, similar to past years
• 53% say government doing too many things to solve nation’s problems
• Twice as many say there is too much rather than too little business regulation

Gee! The included this chart all the way back to 1992. We could have lots of fun pointing out how people are bamboozled by the parties jockeying for MORE political power in DC – always for the purpose of “doing more to solve our country’s problems.”

So, answer me this. If somewhere between 50-60% of the people of this great land believe that government (speaking mostly of the FedGov, admittedly) is doing too much? (Except in 2002 and 2020.) Why doesn’t ONE of the big, old political parties NOT jump on this bandwagon and seriously start pushing scaling back government? Even 25% scaling back?

It is NOT because they are a bunch of stupid politicians. It is because they know which side of their bread has the butter on it. a strong majority of politicians want, need, MORE government. It is how they make a living. It is how they become wealthy. It is how they enjoy power and prestige, from getting headlines to getting free Cokes at local eateries!

The conclusion is obvious: most politicians do not care what they people think beyond what they need to think to vote for Politician A over Politician B (or B and C). And that concern for what people think goes away about midnight on election day and doesn’t come back until a month or so before the next primary elections.

As we will see, yet again, in a few weeks.

In this country, we put the dying into hospices. We put the incurably ill or injured into nursing homes. We put the drug- and alcohol-addicted into treatment and rehab centers. We used to put the insane into asylums. (Now we let them wander the streets.) Politicians arguably have an incurable obsession/addiction to political power and stealing wealth. So we have special places to put them, too. Unfortunately, and bad for our society, of course. We put them in capitol buildings and county courthouses and city halls. BUT we also let them wander around almost as much as the crazy homeless people do, but with far greater damage to society and people than smearing the dirt on your windshield or snatching an apple off a food stand.

Now think about that.