“We Have Met the Enemy…And He Is Us”*
Thanks, Ron, but you were wrong
In 1986, Ronald Reagan famously said:
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Politically, it was a masterstroke, giving conservatives a clever line that encapsulated their overarching goal, and it’s been repeated by them ever since.
That goal is a small and restrained government at all levels in preference to private interests. It’s an alluring notion. With the steady growth in the size of government since the New Deal of the 1930s, there have been plenty of examples of government waste, incompetence, and general dysfunction.
Other colloquial expressions preceded Reagan’s and communicated the same theme — government-run operations were of questionable competence and value. One example is the World War II acronym SNAFU; it stands for “Situation Normal, All F***ed Up.”
As a former federal government employee, I can attest to this feeling as I’ve personally seen this dynamic from the inside. I can also attest to something else that may not be as popular to say these days:
Government is good, government is necessary, and government can work well.
