Someone asked recently why so few voters bother with state and local elections in the USA. That is a good question. Most states had local elections this week on Tuesday, and again as usual, less than half of the eligible voters showed up to vote. In addition to candidates for Mayor, City Council, County Council, and Judges, there were votes for many tax increase proposals and amendments to state constitutions or local city charters. But few people voted. Doesn't our vote matter? Doesn't every vote count? No, despite what the talking head pundits always say, it really doesn't matter who we vote for most of the time. Most of us know that.
Bob has been observing elections for about half a century, and has read widely about government theory and performance. The first principle of government is the
ratchet effect. Legislative bodies always pass more laws. They never erase old laws. They always enact new programs, establish new agencies and bureaus, and levy more taxes to pay for the new tentacles of the bureaucracy. It is very rare that any agency or bureau is deleted. Like a ratchet wrench tightening the screws on the people, it only “clicks” one direction. Every “click” it tightens the screws. Every time you wiggle the wrench back and forth it clicks ever tighter. The same effect happens in government. Every time the voters wiggle the government it goes click! Every time it tightens the screws on what once was a free people.
The second principle of government is
incompetence. A private business that fails to meet its budget or fails to satisfy a real need of the public soon finds itself bankrupt and goes out of business. You see few companies making buggy whips any more. Private business makes a profit and satisfies the public or it goes away. The government by contrast never has to make a profit, and never has to satisfy anyone at all. Government managers salaries are legally set by the size of the budgets they administer. If a manager of a bureau or agency can figure out how to spend twice as much money doing the same job, government law says he should be paid more, not less. The effect of such insane laws push every government manager to constantly work to spend more and more and more money. None of them ever tries to spend less, because getting the job done for less would, by law, no longer justify their salary. Government is about spending money, our money. It's not about doing a job or satisfying the customers.
The third principle of government is control and domination,
power. People who go into government are looking for power. The power motivation applies to all government workers from the blue gun thug inductee to the elected congresscunt or mayor. They use their power to extract “favors” and “donations” from citizens and businesses. Power corrupts, and elected power is every bit as corrupt as hereditary power. In some ways, hereditary power has more freedom not to be corrupt. A hereditary King is often born rich, is secure in office, and doesn't have to make a pile of cash quickly by corruption and extortion like most elected officials.
So why should we the people bother to vote? Lets look at the city council races. We see yard signs that say something like “SNODGRASS -- Position 3.” What does that tell us about Snodgrass as compared to the other candidates? It tells us nothing at all about what Snodgrass will do to make a difference in the government. All that it really tells us is that voting for Snodgrass will ensure the continued existence of “Position 3” Then we see another sign saying “Dirks – Position 3.” Now we have a choice. We can ensure the continued existence of “Position 3” by voting either for Dirks or Snodgrass. Neither candidates promises to make any difference in anything else in our lives. Neither will half our local taxes, Neither will stop the highway robbery of travelers. Neither will take out the parking meters. Neither will even slow down the ratchet effect of local government. Whomever we vote for, Position 3 will continue, the city government will continue, and NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE!
Neither does voting on the “issues” have any significant results. In Seattle, for example, the voters have approved tax increases for an elevated rail transit line from downtown to the West Seattle area more than 10 times over the past quarter century. Every time the politicians lied to the people and promised to improve life for a portion of the people if the taxes were approved. Every time the taxes went up, the corrupt politicians pocketed large sums of the people's money, and to date they have never turned the first shovel of dirt constructing the elevated commuter rail line. This past Tuesday the voters in Seattle were again asked to approve a tax increase for another corruption “transit” program. This time the voters turned it down. I guess we found out how many times the same voters will believe the same lies. But it doesn't really matter, the corruption in Seattle government will go on and on regardless. This year again in Washington State the voters were asked to change the state constitution to allow tax increases for schools with only a simple majority vote instead of the constitutionally required 60% approval. The same issue has been voted on and rejected every few years all my life, about half a century now. But voting it down does not have any effect. The corrupt politicians just recycle it. There plan is to rely on the ratchet effect. If they keep wiggling the ratchet it will one day go
click and the public will be screwed again. In half a century we have elected dozens of new legislators, new governors, new councilmen, but the same old tax increase levy proposal goes on and on. It has made no difference at all which candidate got elected over 50 years. NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE!
And judge positions are even worse. In most US States it is even
illegal for judicial candidates to say anything at all about making improvements in the corruption of the court system. We are supposed to vote for them blindly, and that doesn't matter either because the agents of Satan in black robes of hell are all the same. NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE!
It is the same for national offices too, from the President to the congresscunts. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century, the ratchet effect of big government tightens the screws down and down. False promises to “lower taxes” only mean that the rate of increase in taxes will be slowed for a while. The people have been DEMANDING that our borders be controlled for decades. Regan promised to control the borders if we accepted an amnesty program – just this once. He may have meant it at the time, but whether or not he had good intentions didn't matter at all. The result was exactly the same. The government has ignored the people and continued on and on with its corruption and failure. Bush, Clinton, Bush, the border problem only gets worse and worse. The Christian coalition falsely believed that electing Republicans would make a difference. They mobilized millions of voters and overturned the Democratic Congress. But in the long run, nothing mattered. The Republican Congress kept right on doing all the things that corruption and politicians do. They ignored the needs of the people, taking for granted the constituency that had extended themselves to make changes in Congress. The Christians forgot the fourth principle of government,
NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE!The majority of voters in the US have leaned that our vote really doesn't matter. The government will do what it does regardless of how we vote. And, in fact they won't allow an election to stand if it is only decided by 1 vote. Since you, and I, are only 1 vote, they won't allow your vote or mine to decide an election. Our vote, your vote, my vote, will never decide an election and will never change the government. Our vote doesn't really matter. NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE!
Every year the politicians and talking heads blame the people for not voting. They spew the usual whine that a citizen who doesn't vote has no right to gripe that the government is bad. But like all government lies that is just another lie. The truth is that voting doesn't make any difference. The problems in the government are the same and will be the same whether you or I voted or not. One theory is that the only function of the elections is to placate the people, to keep us from rioting in the streets and beheading all the corrupt liars, bullies, and robbers who take our money to destroy our families. Elections do not have a function of making changes in the government. Elections are completely ineffective doing that, and your vote won't have that result. Your vote only serves to show your approval of the continuation of “Position 3” in a very corrupt and very over bloated government.
There is one faint ray of hope in all this. One political theory says that over centuries ratchet government eventually becomes so bloated and eats so much of the people's resources that the people can't take it any more. According to the theory the people eventually rise up against the government and throw them all out, erase all the tangled web of laws, eliminate the bureaucracy, and start over. The theory says that it takes a government about 200 years to become so corrupt and so bloated that it fails completely and must be replaced. The United States is now over 200 years old.
Talk Radio host and now CNN host Glenn Beck lives in New York City where he produces his CNN program. Last week he spoke of getting out of NYC and visiting Texas. He observed that many of the people he met in Texas are wondering when and how the people can “take back our country.” According to Beck, the Texans weren't wondering about voting the rascals out of office, because that obviously is no solution and never was a solution. The Texans are talking about tossing out the whole government and starting over. It's been over 200 years.
"It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part." Benjamin Franklin. Old Ben was a very wise man who understood the need to overthrow a tyrannical government.
Bob never advocates any treason, insurrection, revolution, or any other popular uprising. Bob is only a cyber libertarian, philosopher, and observer of politics, history, and political theories.
Labels: elections, government, Politics, ratchet effect, revolution, Seattle, voting
