U.S Rep Susan Brooks recently paid a visit to Grant county. Though she spent much of her campaign to get elected lambasting the federal government for its many follies, she seems to have developed respect for the almost universally loathed men and women of Congress. “(I have been) really impressed with the quality of passion and intellect of all members of Congress...They are smart people who care very much about this country." Congress? Smart? This certainly would have come as a shock to Mark Twain who once quipped, "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." He also claimed that a flea could be taught anything that a congressman knows.
But what I find even more dubious is her claim that Congress "cares very much" about...well, anything other than themselves. H.L. Mencken, who like Twain was an American literary genius, expresses this sentiment in his inimitable style:
"These men (in government), in point of fact, are seldom if ever moved by anything rationally describable as public spirit; there is actually no more public spirit among them than among so many burglars or street-walkers. Their purpose, first, last and all the time, is to promote their private advantage, and to that end, and that end alone, they exercise all the vast powers that are in their hands.... Whatever it is they seek, whether security, greater ease, more money or more power, it has to come out of the common stock, and so it diminishes the shares of all other men."
I doubt very much has changed for the better in Congress since Mark Twain's or Mencken's days. Most likely, it has gotten even worse. So I'm afraid I just can't take Susan's claims very seriously.
She goes on to bemoan how difficult it is, in comparison to the judicial and executive branches, to "get things done" in the legislature. You can't just issue an edict and expect everyone to obey. You have to get people to agree with you. I suppose that would slow down the process. But since the process tends to strip Americans of as much money and liberty as they will bear without revolting, it's probably best that it is slowed down.
Brooks, this friend to the Tea Party, this alleged champion of small government conservatism, is also a member of the Homeland Security Committee. Of course, Homeland Security is the Orwellian name for the federal department that is all but openly at war with the citizens of the United States. It is the department charged with protecting the "homeland" from terrorists. And we are all, evidently, suspects in the war on terror. So Homeland Security must monitor our bank accounts, political rallies, and internet usage. We have given up living in a free country in order to feel safe from the enemies the government created during 60+ years of intervening in the affairs of foreign nations. And safety of the citizenry, according to Brooks, is “the federal government’s top role...and that’s not something the private sector should be doing.”
Put aside, for a moment, the argument that the federal government's actions, including bankrupting the nation, actually make us less safe. Is the federal government's top role to keep us all safe in the first place? Not at all. The federal government of the United States' first goal should be to protect individual liberty. The whole excuse for needing a military is to deter foreign invasions so that Americans can freely go about producing goods and services to exchange on a free market. The quantity of safety that a society accepts must be based on voluntary trade-offs. The congresswoman doesn't think the private sector should be protecting us, but it does so regardless. It is private businesses that provide us with locks for our doors, security systems, shotguns, and fireproof safes. Almost every company I have ever worked for has had private security guards on the premises even though the government provides a police department. If anything, we should allow the private sector to provide more security.
Susan Brooks proves to be yet another typical Republican masquerading as a proponent of small government. Hopefully, the people of our county will finally catch on to this trick that she and so many other members of the GOP have played on us. Hopefully, the Republican Party will just wither away and be replaced by liberty.
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