“In the eyes of democracy, government is not a good; it is a necessary evil” (194).
“This is seen very clearly in the United States, where wages seem in a way to decrease as the power of officials is greater” (204). –
Alexis de Tocqueville
An analogy has been crystalizing in my mind the more I speak and the more I teach about the American government, so I wanted to share it with you today. It’s something I’ve said before but I’m hoping that laying out in such simple terms will help better develop and reshape your political mindset.
In the United States, both in reality and theory, the people created the government that we currently have. And the people created this government to do a job for the people.
That job?
“Furthermore, the people in America obey the law not only because it is their work, but also because they can change it when by chance it hurts them; they submit to it in the first place as an evil that is imposed by themselves and after that as a passing evil” (231).
Alexis de Tocqueville
To protect us and our private property from each other. Otherwise, we’d have no liberty because we’d always be living in a state of constant fear.
Now, think of this practically, we hired the government to do this job for us; therefore, as government’s employers, we have to pay the government (hence, taxation) to do that job.
Now, here’s the kicker.
From a purely business/transactional perspective, what job in the world doesn’t have a job description?
No really, think about it.
Every single person who is ever hired to do a job is hired to do a specific job, which is why they are given a job description and why they’re hired in the first place.
No one is hired to simply get paid and then “do whatever they want”. Right?
And yet, we “hire” our “public servants” and act like they can “do whatever they want”.
Do we not?!
This is so critical for us, as Americans and government employers, to grab ahold of.
We hire them, we pay them and we can firethem, and yet when they are “applying” and “interviewing” for the job, we rarely hold them up to the standards of their job description during this vetting process, nor do we expect them to stay within any confined behaviors once they’re in office.
This is an egregiously dangerous method of management and employment. Employees, especially ones given immense power, are going to do all they can to push the limits of that power. And that brings up another point, there better be limitsto that power.
Power without limits is arbitrary power and arbitrary power is, well… limitless power.
But what good are limits if those who are meant to impose the limits don’t know the limits they’re supposed to impose? Further, what good are limits if those who are meant to impose the limits don’t enforce those limits?
What good is a job description if it is never used by the employer to limit and guide the employee?
“In the United States, therefore, they did not claim that a man in a free country has the right to everything; on the contrary, they imposed on him more varied social obligations than elsewhere; they did not have the idea of attacking the power of society in its principle and of contesting its rights; they limited themselves to dividing it in its exercise. They wanted in this manner to arrive at the point where authority is great and the official is small, so that society would continue to be well regulated and remain free.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
So, I ask. What good is our U.S. Federal Constitution, our state constitutions, or our local charters, if we the people, the government’s employers, neither know nor care to enforce those job descriptions on our employees, government?
For example: what good is our government’s job description if we ask or debate about how our federal government can “fix healthcare” or “education”, both topics not within our federal government’s job description?
They, the government, have no incentive to stay within their job description if they know that we, their employers, don’t even know their job description.
We really need to get back to basics. It’s simple.
Government is our employee. Government works for us, we don’t work for them. They do a job for us and we pay them to do that job. We gave them a job description, The Constitution, to both confine and define their power in that job.
“Often the European sees in the public official only force; the American see in him right. One can therefore say that in America man never obeys man, but justice or law.” (90)
Alexis de Tocqueville
It’s time we start acting like the government’s boss before we all get the wrong idea that they’re our boss and this wrong idea becomes reality.
The Liberty Belle
