Ask Yourself: What Does the Government Do?

Another election is upon us. This year, it is for local offices, and next year, voters will decide who runs the federal government. Increasingly in recent years, politicians and the people that control them have attempted to turn our elections into reality TV shows, hurling slander and nonsense into the discourse, hoping voters will choose the least vile candidate on the ballot. We need to collectively take a step back and reset the system. If your roof was leaking and a roofer showed up suggesting you hire him because the other roofers were racist, well, that would probably be a red flag. All you want is your roof fixed, and you would try to hire a person who could fix the leak cheaply and efficiently. It would be pretty simple. Choosing people to run the government is just as simple – we just need to drown out the nonsense these people spew at us and ask ourselves, “What is the job I am hiring this person to do?”

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What does the government do? These days, the government touches so many elements of our lives that it might be difficult to answer that question without some thought. Each of us also has our own priorities, so naturally, the “role of the government” might mean different things to different people. For some on the left, the most important function the government can serve is guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion. Every American citizen is entitled to cast a ballot on whatever basis he or she chooses, and if abortion is your most important issue, there is no shortage of candidates who promise to defend that issue. For the rest of us, we should stop and write down what role we expect the government to perform. I tried that exercise, and I came up with this list:

1) Keep us safe - locally and internationally

2) Manage the budget - allocate our limited resources to things that do the most good for the largest number of people

3) Defend the constitution and enforce the law – we are a nation of free people with inalienable rights, and the government exists to preserve those rights, not infringe them

4) Create and preserve an economic framework that promotes prosperity and upward mobility – the American Dream is real and irrespective of what station you were born into, all things are possible

5) Keep ideology out of basic functions – a school is a school and the army is an army, and the functions of each shouldn’t change depending on who is in charge.

Each of these ideas can be applied to the President as much as they can to the County Executive. Are you keeping international peace or creating chaos around the globe? Are you appointing police commissioners who are empowered to arrest criminals and keep them off our streets, or sitting idly by while drugs and crime destroy our communities?

It really is this simple. Sadly, for the first time in my life, these very basic functions of government are not only not being performed, they are being permitted to spiral out of control. There is escalating international chaos. Criminals are being permitted to operate freely without fear of consequence. Laws are not being enforced, and the constitution is openly flouted on a regular basis. Our budgets, both locally and nationally, are run with zero regard for fiscal discipline, ultimately crushing regular, hard-working Americans. Schools, the military, and seemingly any entity sponsored by tax dollars have been infected with ideological debate that ultimately serves no purpose other than to pit regular Americans against each other. And the American Dream? Ask high school kids in Suffolk County. Many will tell you they don’t believe it is possible. College is too expensive and far-fetched for many. And when our own kids don’t think the dream exists, the whole chain of dominos begins to fall in front of our eyes. That is what we are watching right now.

Before you cast your vote, this year or next, ask yourself: “What do I believe the government’s job is?” Write it down. Then, ask yourself which party and which candidate is most likely to perform that job for you. It is that simple.