Thursday, March 02, 2006
Misplaced Priorities
What is the job of the US federal government? The president says that his main job is to keep the American people safe. If I remember correctly, the oath of office swears to support, defend and protect the Constitution. As I hear more hoopla about the president's response to Katrina, I become more and more tired of hearing it. On the other hand, I cannot "disengage" because there is a fundamental principle at stake.
The first five words of the first amendment to the Constitution are as much of a preamble as the preamble itself--"Congress shall make no law... ." The key is that the Constitution has always been about protecting the American people from its government. A protectorate government assumes powers over the people that it should not have, and that seems to be the entire framework of the discussion. Both sides of the isle have accepted the idea that the federal government should have power to override local authority at its choosing. It is a fundamentally collectivist idea that has serious ramifications. That was the whole issue in the debate. We could argue that George Bush has been inconsistent in his application of the law, but in the case of Katrina, he was held back by its restrictions. Do we now take off those restrictions or ignore them? The mayor or the governor had the jurisdiction in this case all along, and the federal government was their servant. They failed to use it properly.
Furthermore, the framework is increasingly troubling as we deal with this issue in the context of the War on Terror. What rights are held by the federal government to micromanage society from a set of bureaus on the Eastern Seabord? I, for one, am appalled by the expansion of federal power on this issue. It is true that the nation was attacked and thousands died. It may well be fair to invade states that sponsor terrorism. What is abhorrent is that the entire program of policing by the federal government is invasive by a branch of government removed from the public by distance and independence from an elective accountability. Being at war is one thing. Being at war with an enemy that is independent of any state is another. What really troubles me about the Katrina situation is that the war begins against a completely indefinable enemy. Is the president to declare war on nature, weather, hurricanes, God? In the end, whether by intention or accident, the war will be on the people and on individual liberty. This is the problem with power. Power corrupts, despite the best of intentions, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I would rather see people spend their energy planning and developing technology and ideas that benefit me as a person or even better the individual lives of the poor and the suffering than plan massive infrastructures. The ultimate lesson that I think we all should take from Katrina is not that the government should do more. It has been doing more for hundreds of years down there with all of the intelligence collective engineers can muster, and the ultimatly the levees broke and the town flooded. The government built it, and it broke. The ultimate lesson should be that the government should do less. When we give the government power to do good, it can turn right around (and will eventually) and use that power to do evil.
The first five words of the first amendment to the Constitution are as much of a preamble as the preamble itself--"Congress shall make no law... ." The key is that the Constitution has always been about protecting the American people from its government. A protectorate government assumes powers over the people that it should not have, and that seems to be the entire framework of the discussion. Both sides of the isle have accepted the idea that the federal government should have power to override local authority at its choosing. It is a fundamentally collectivist idea that has serious ramifications. That was the whole issue in the debate. We could argue that George Bush has been inconsistent in his application of the law, but in the case of Katrina, he was held back by its restrictions. Do we now take off those restrictions or ignore them? The mayor or the governor had the jurisdiction in this case all along, and the federal government was their servant. They failed to use it properly.
Furthermore, the framework is increasingly troubling as we deal with this issue in the context of the War on Terror. What rights are held by the federal government to micromanage society from a set of bureaus on the Eastern Seabord? I, for one, am appalled by the expansion of federal power on this issue. It is true that the nation was attacked and thousands died. It may well be fair to invade states that sponsor terrorism. What is abhorrent is that the entire program of policing by the federal government is invasive by a branch of government removed from the public by distance and independence from an elective accountability. Being at war is one thing. Being at war with an enemy that is independent of any state is another. What really troubles me about the Katrina situation is that the war begins against a completely indefinable enemy. Is the president to declare war on nature, weather, hurricanes, God? In the end, whether by intention or accident, the war will be on the people and on individual liberty. This is the problem with power. Power corrupts, despite the best of intentions, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I would rather see people spend their energy planning and developing technology and ideas that benefit me as a person or even better the individual lives of the poor and the suffering than plan massive infrastructures. The ultimate lesson that I think we all should take from Katrina is not that the government should do more. It has been doing more for hundreds of years down there with all of the intelligence collective engineers can muster, and the ultimatly the levees broke and the town flooded. The government built it, and it broke. The ultimate lesson should be that the government should do less. When we give the government power to do good, it can turn right around (and will eventually) and use that power to do evil.
