One Man's Trash

Norman Leahy

Making the World a Better Place -- 

with Other Peoples' Money

We all want change. The question is, whom do you trust to deliver it -- a government run by self- appointed elites, or friends and neighbors working as volunteers?

Last week, I got a fundraising email from the Virginia Democratic Party. How I ended up on the DPV's list is something I still haven’t figured out, but I haven’t opted-out of the party's appeals because they are both entertaining and depressing.

The latest was no different.

It arrived less than a day after Sarah Palin accepted the GOP vice presidential nomination. Its message was simple: Virginia Democrats need money. Otherwise, the same tired politics and failed policies that we have suffered the last 8 years will drain the Republic’s precious fluids and leave us all as mad as the cinematic right-winger Gen. Jack D. Ripper.

Or it could have said that if writers hadn't run their work by the top brass who timidly drained the life blood from the copy. No matter, the missive soldiers on and actually throws off some sparks:

And last night we saw John McCain use Sarah Palin to attack Senator Obama's experience as a community organizer. It was a vicious and callous assault with only one purpose: to get the right wing to open their wallets.

This type of politics is not the change our nation needs.

Better, punchier, more life. The editing committee must have stepped out for a smoke before reading that one.

But the censors came back, all refreshed and with a slight buzz. The result was disaster for the copy, which limped to a finish:

Change can't wait! Help us make the difference today.

Egad. Never mind that this is derivative (the Red Cross used a very similar tag line for years). It ends with a thud.

There’s no “you” here… no life, no real call to action. But the editing committee did do something, wholly unintentional, of course, that is really quite chilling: It put forward the idea that a political party, and by extension, the government, can “make a difference."

Now, governments can make a difference in people’s lives: They can muck them up beyond recognition. Whether it’s wage and price controls, the draft (sorry, “national service”), the drug war, the war on poverty, or its wars on terrorism, childhood obesity, global warming, trolls and fallen arches, the government can and does use its power (with our general consent, I must add) to do all sorts of harm, every day.

These various wars, complete with legions of bureaucrats, consultants, experts, special deputy assistant secretaries and probably a phrenologist or two, all aim to make us safer, healthier, wiser, thinner and more sexy. Or they will, assuming some flat-earther doesn’t come along and cut the budget.

How did we allow this to happen? It took a lot of time, to be sure. There was a point in our history when, if government wanted to give money to widows of war heroes or rebuild disaster-strewn communities, a group of people would stand up and say “Does the constitution give us the power to do any of this?” And, strange as it may seem, other people would actually look at the constitution to see if it did.

That’s not the case today. After nearly a century of viewing government as a force for “change,” we’ve surrendered the basic American (and very Virginian) notion that government is a dangerous thing. As Mr. Jefferson said:

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

We’re not there, yet. But if we insist on looking to government for such things as “change,” whatever that means, then we’re bound to get a government that will give us all the change we can handle. And it won’t be pretty.

So what can we do? Aside from revolution, which would interfere with football season, we have politics.

And, if you believe P.J. O’Rourke, that means we’re doubly doomed:

It is the avowed purpose of politics to bring the policies of our nation down to a level where they are good for everyone. No matter how foolish, irresponsible, selfish, grasping, or vile everyone may be, politics seeks fairness for them all.

We’re hearing a lot of talk about fairness in this political season. Income fairness, health care fairness… and the worst part is that some people actually think the government can make our lives, paychecks and sciatica fair, if we just have hope.

You may also find a pony in that pile of dung… just keep digging.

There is reason to hope, though, and even greater reason to think that change is possible. I can see it in the people around me who are involved in the community – the schools, the volunteer organizations, the neighborhood associations. These people are making a difference where it counts most: closest to them. Politicians can’t do that, no matter what their copywriters say.

There’s reason to hope, too, because I see kids around me who are eager to learn and discover and for them, nothing is impossible. And they never once look to a politician or a political party to make it happen.

That’s the kind of change I can believe in. And the best part? It’s all around us…waiting to be unleashed.

…..

On a different note, I want to express my profound thanks to Jim Bacon for allowing me to be a part of Bacon’s Rebellion. I’ve always been a fan of these digital pages and it was a great honor and thrill when Jim asked me to contribute. He may not always have agreed with me, but that’s never been the point. It’s the ideas and discussion that have mattered and they are what made this magazine so important for so many. Virginia’s policy debate will be the poorer for its absence. But the ideas Jim has fostered here will endure. 

-- September 8 2008