Elections matter too much: Glenn Reynolds

[kindy64]

Here is the crux of the matter in my opinion. The Federal government has too much power.

Why isn't the tax code simple? Why are there so many regulations? As Glenn Reynolds would say "because there's insufficient room for graft." If there were say, a 20% flat tax on all income over the poverty line, what would all the accountants, and lobbyists do?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/20.../96923492/

But in fact, this reaction to an election loss — by anyone, to any candidate — is not entirely irrational. Elections matter, after all. In fact, these days they matter too much. In the wake of the 2008 election, writer Jerry Pournelle observed: “We have always known that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It's worse now, because capture of government is so much more important than it once was. There was a time when there was enough freedom that it hardly mattered which brand of crooks ran government. That has not been true for a long time — not during most of your lifetimes, and for much of mine — and it will probably never be true again.”

In other words, if Americans increasingly find it intolerable that their political opponents control the government, that’s because government controls too much.

Then, of course, there was the weaponization of the IRS. When it was Tea Party groups being harassed, nobody cared much. But now Democrats fear that under Trump, the IRS might target them. And they should: Going back at least as far as FDR, as Jonah Goldberg noted in his book, Liberal Fascism, presidents have used the IRS and other parts of the bureaucracy to target opponents.

But now, of course, we’ve just finished eight years of a president who claimed the legal right to kill Americans, without a trial, anywhere in the world outside the United States. One who spied on journalists, and imprisoned those who leaked to them. One who openly boasted that with his pen and a phone he didn’t need Congress.

And that was fine with Democrats, until the other team took power. Then, as libertarian Bretigne Shaffer notes, everything changed: “I understand that a lot of people are worried, upset, even frightened over the prospect of a Trump presidency. Good. They should be. But they should have been worried eight years ago, or at the very least, four years ago. . . . It cannot be that all of these people only see evil when it wears the other team’s uniform. It cannot be that they are more upset by offensive speech than by a man claiming the right to kill any human being on earth at his whim. These things simply cannot be. And yet it sure looks like they are.”

[InbetweenDreams]

I didn't think it was fine, see the problem we have with the whole red vs blue thing (just looking at the part you quoted) is the blue don't believe the red side that under the Obama administration that they were spying on journalists and being able to kill an American without a trial and so on. Most of that is on the media because well the average person is going to turn on CNN or Fox News and assume what they're hearing is the truth when is more like a half truth. We assume much of what we hear and see to be factual all because we assume the source we get it from is reputable...is it... hmm.

I agree I think the government has way too much power, it is evident seeing how the act. When taking office as public service becomes a career to me that is a problem, but perhaps that is too harsh. I think we have too many corporations who have their tentacles in the government. I mean after someone who has strong ties to Exxon is now over the EPA... I'm sure he's going to be pushing electric cars and renewable energy (but that's a crock of shit right?). Of course that's just one example....I mean we also have Andy Pudzer who was CEO of CKE Restaurants which is Hardee's and Carl's Jr. over the department of labor... I'm sure he cares a lot about his employees who make those buttermilk biscuits and thickburgers every day...doesn't believe in a minimum wage.