If the cure for COVID-19 is the eradication of civil society and the elimination of individual freedom, our success will be a complete failure.
The New York Times Editorial Board recently launched a project titled, “The America We Need.” It is similar to other efforts coming from the publication of late, layered with sweeping generalities, capitalist condemnations and socialist-style solutions. The Times’ editorial board attempts to use the current coronavirus crisis to rewrite history while retrofitting flailing and failing federal government programs as the only plausible path to a better America.
A government-centric country is not the America we need. Many Washington politicians and economic elites have convinced themselves that they have the wisdom, power and authority to solve every problem the citizens of America could ever encounter. Sadly, this leads to bigger government, bloated bureaucracies, budget deficits and ballooning national debt.
Worse still, it leads to citizens who look to Washington for solutions to every problem. The result is two-fold. First, it increases the size, scope and cost of government. Second, and more importantly, it causes the muscle of mutual commitment and common good to atrophy and the inherent interconnective social tissue of the American people to wither away. That is not the America we need.
I once helped Sen. Mike Lee address this issue by creating a new version of an old fable to make the point.
Two brothers, Billy and Bobby, decided that they would sell apples to make some money. They set up a small fruit stand on the side of a busy road then drove their old pickup out to the farmer’s orchard, where they purchased a truckload of apples at a price of $0.50 an apple. They returned to their stand and began selling those apples for the head-scratching price of … $0.50 an apple.
After selling the entire load the brothers excitedly drove back to the orchard and bought another truckload of apples for the price of … $0.50 an apple. Back at the fruit stand, apples were flying off the shelf, again at the same price. In no time they sold every apple and enthusiastically raced back for another load. They filled their truck and paid the farmer $0.50 an apple. Sweaty and exhausted from their efforts, the two brothers hopped back in their truck and hurried toward their stand.
As they drove, Billy said to Bobby, “Ya know, I’ve been thinkin’ ... We’ve been working really hard today and sold two truck loads of apples, but it doesn’t seem like we’re making any progress in our business.”
Bobby replied, “You know what? You’re right.” He thought long and hard, then asked, “Do you think we need a bigger truck?”
When it comes to the size, cost and scope of the federal government, we do not need the bigger truck The New York Times and big-government elites are selling. Like Billy and Bobby, we instead need to rethink what it is we are trying to accomplish and how best to achieve it.
Unfortunately, too many political leaders just want a bigger truck, with a personalized license plate, heated leather seats, lift-kit, shiny hubcaps and a tricked-out stereo system.
Of course, politicians never mention the price of the truck or how the payments will be made. Nor do they tell us that the big truck really won’t solve all our problems, pay our mortgage, give us a job or provide for our retirement in the end. Not to mention they fail to disclose the fine print that the loan on the truck is currently payable to the Chinese government and will be painfully extracted from us today and from our grandchildren tomorrow.
So instead of a bigger truck, we really need smaller government, bigger citizens and more heroic communities. Plain and simple — that is the America we need.
To be clear, government does have a role to play, particularly in the midst of a global pandemic which is taking lives, ruining family finances, destroying small businesses and crippling national economies. There are things only the federal government can do. Those things should be done with excellence, transparency and complete accountability.
That role should be centered in a commitment that any solution be carefully measured and clearly communicated to citizens. Absent that, the solutions to COVID-19 will ultimately erode civil society and undermine liberty.
To make its case for a mega truck, the Times dropped in one my all-time favorite Abraham Lincoln quotes. Lincoln wrote to Congress that, “The purpose of the federal government, was to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial burdens from all shoulders, and to give everyone an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.”
The Times then proceeded to throw Lincoln under their big truck for how he attempted to fulfill that purpose. Lincoln was clearly not enlightened enough for the Times’ editorial board.
In reality Lincoln knew that what people needed more than a connection to money and government programs was a connection to other people. The America we need is found in the interconnectedness of people, in the space between government and the individual. Family, community, neighbors, businesses, nonprofits, religious groups and volunteer organizations succeed in the space where big government falters and fails.
The America we need is found in the interconnectedness of people, in the space between government and the individual.
I actually agree with Hillary Clinton that, “It takes a village” — so long as we clearly recognize the government is not the village.
The Times’ editorial board seems to believe that the government is the village as they declared that the New Deal and Great Society were the cure for the problems of the time and suggested both would have been more successful if only more money had been spent more and the programs created bigger. “These policies embodied a broad and muscular conception of liberty: that government should provide all Americans with the freedom that comes from a stable and prosperous life.”
The role of government is not to provide all Americans freedom and a prosperous life. They went further citing a marketing professional from Philadelphia who said, “By 40, my parents owned a house, had a kid — me — and were both doing well in their careers.” Then contrasted, “I’m freelancing, renting, partnerless and childless.” I’m pretty sure the founders would question the federal government’s role in such areas of life.
When uncertainty abounds, security is coveted. Those in favor of centrally planned, government-controlled solutions rush to make a deal with those desperate for security in the current pandemic. The promises of “free” at the expense of freedom and future opportunity is as old as time. “Sell your birthright for a mess of pottage” has a familiar ring to it.
As Benjamin Franklin cautioned, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Thomas Jefferson added, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
If in this moment of vulnerability we yield our individual liberty and abdicate our personal responsibility to each other, the pandemic of 2020 will unleash devastating effects that will be felt for generations to come.
During this COVID-19 crisis Americans have shown their willingness to make personal sacrifices for the common good and heed a heavier-than-normal federal hand with permission still given through the consent of the governed. Shared sacrifice rather than coercion is part of the American story.
Citizens must remain cautious as the big government cure to the human and economic effects of COVID-19 pulls up in a tricked-out truck offering security and a free ride. That ride can lead to an expressway on the road to ruin for our society.
The America we need is an America with a small but strong government and a free society driven by bigger citizens and more heroic communities.