At present in America, the conservatives have gotten hold of the government and have been doing things clearly in their interest. Since the inauguration of Trump, the group known as 2025 are applying through him their agenda, as they stated in their manifesto—they will be there on day one. And they have accomplished a number of their ideas using the power of the presidential office. Some of these ideas involved cutting back on governmental services through the process of firing and or closing positions, buying employees out, reducing funding to administration branches, such as the Department of Education. Using funding as a weapon to get institutions of higher learning to drop their programs on diversity. Fortunately, Harvard has stood up to them refusing to kowtow to their actions by suing.
This brings us to a discussion of conservatism versus liberalism in government services. The conservatives seek to decrease government services and what they call streamlining. It appears that the 2025 group is not concerned with the effectiveness of government in its services to its people but to make a government more efficient. Efficiency refers to getting the most out of the money coming into its coffers. Effectiveness refers to fulfilling the purpose of the service and the strategies used to provide those services.
The services of government to its people, from whom the coffers are filled by their taxes, encompass a large array: legislating laws for the protection of the people from themselves, from the government itself, from foreign enemies; providing and supporting education, health services, welfare, social security; building roadways, bridges, and funding myriad activities for the overall well-being of its people. Many of these services not only apply to the federal government but also to the States and local communities. One of the best things our government does is to use the excess flow of taxes from highly populated locales and spread it across the country to provide services that otherwise would not reach the people due to the lack of a strong tax base. So then if you are looking for efficiency alone then services to the people will begin to wane. The way things presently are going I do not foresee an increase of effectiveness in the services of the government to its people but the opposite. The “Hands off!” movement is a clear indication that people are becoming distraught with the present administration’s actions. Interestingly, it is not only in the United States but seems to be a global issue, especially concerning tariffs. This has aroused ire about the world.
So, what is the mind set behind this governmental conservative movement to streamline? What does it get? The mindset I perceive is egoistic self-satisfaction, i.e., I am pleased with the current operational procedures. They are simply happy to have accomplished it without caring about the end results of diminishing service to the contributors to the coffers—the citizenry. President Lincoln clearly expressed government by, for and of the people. It looks like that is not where we are presently going. I like to use the example of a religious conservative, who may seek uniformity in many different matters because of a belief that following a particular path may keep you from going to hell, which may be a more reasonable argument than self-satisfaction.
It is against the law to burn down your house. “John, why did you do it? It was full of evil spirits. Bill, why did you burn down your house? I wanted to see how fast it would burn.” We are at the latter.
Liberals also look for self-satisfaction in the sense of accomplishing a good deed for an individual or for humanity, i.e., in the pursuit of happiness. Overall, it is by pursuing the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence, specifically, “that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The consent matters not of who or what they are (male or female) but that they are humans, whose rights are described the U.S. Constitution due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments which ensures fairness and protects individuals from being deprived of life, liberty, or property by the government without following proper legal procedures. If we as a people and government do not accept and believe and make our Constitution work, we do not have anything. We are a ship of fools without a rudder bobbing on a sea without a port.
Eclecticwriter 