Sometimes it feels like watching Argentina is watching the future. At some point, we as a nation are going to have to get to where the Argentinian people are in terms of an understanding of why they're in the economic position they are. Their country is in dire economic straits thanks to incompetent politicians looking at government as a way to do good, or at least what they think is "good."
While a ton of mistakes have been made in Argentina to bring the country to where it is, the vast majority of these mistakes stem from the belief that government is the path through which to do good things. It is not. Government is a necessary evil. It cannot be a source of good. You don't expect a venomous snake to inject you with vitamins and minerals upon biting you, yet we look at the snake that is government in the same way.
And when I say "we," I mean too many Republicans as well. We've so normalized government growth and oversight that we hardly cringe when it grows or new laws are created.
This isn't how a free people should see government.
The government is a restrictive force by nature. Its job is to get in your way, and if not yours, then somebody's. This is utilized properly when it comes to fighting necessary wars and conflicts. We want our military to get in other people's way pretty efficiently. However, this gets turned on its head when federal law enforcement agencies or enforcement agencies within government departments are created.
For instance, I'm still waiting for someone to explain why the IRS needed billions of our tax dollars to train "enforcers." After watching the FBI be weaponized against its own citizens on behalf of a political party, I'm not entirely sure why we need that department, either.
Argentinians asked themselves questions just like these and came to a great conclusion. "We don't need these things," and they elected Javier Milei, a man willing to eliminate them. As Bonchie wrote on Monday, that's exactly what he did. The moment he got into power, he destroyed entire departments.
On his 1st day in office, President Milei signs an executive order, reducing government from 21 ministries to 9
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 11, 2023
Interior, exterior, economy, justice, infrastructure, foreign affairs, security & defense all stay
Education, healthcare, culture, women’s rights etc out (Afuera!) pic.twitter.com/12Cqq9ZUu6
It's unlikely Milei will be able to chop through the Gordian knot that is big government during his first term, or even his second. This is going to be a long march. Like a stain, once it sets into the fabric of a nation, big government bureaucracy is hard to get out.
It's going to take the Argentinian people to maintain that view of government that they have now and realize that the less of it that there is, the more successful the people are.
The same has to happen here in America, and I have every confidence we'll get there someday, but things may have to get worse before they get better. Things have to get to a point where it becomes beyond clear where the problem is and that we need people willing to go into government to reduce it by leaps and bounds.
We need law-unmakers, not lawmakers.
These people might look and sound extreme, and to the mind of a person who's had government growth normalized all their life, they might absolutely come off that way. However, these are the most sane people in the room.
It's them we need to normalize.
