Standing Athwart History Shouting BACKWARDS!!!!

A Winger's Lament. The Country's been going to hell in a hand basket since 1787:

Every time I visit Washington, D.C., I am struck by a single, terrible thought: It is not just that conservatives are losing the various battles over big government, but they have been losing the war for generations. The most conservatives are ever able to do is tinker at the margins – and celebrating small victories like lowering marginal tax rates is a sign of just how low our sights are set.

Why has this happened? After all, this was a country founded in direct opposition to unlimited governmental power. How have we arrived at a point when the feds can do just about anything they want?

It is because, at critical moments in the nation’s history, the advocates of limited government were on the losing side of the political equation, and the opposition was very effective at consolidating its victory. Not only did big government advocates implement policy changes, they also brought about huge structural innovations to the way the government functions.

Cost via the Weekly Standard (which was formerly named after a brand of toilets)

The first critical moment or big battle over the role of the state was lost by the Anti-Federalists.  The articles of confederation were replaced with the US Constitution which supported the formation of an administrative system suitable for that age (just as it supports an administrative system suitable for  the strains and stresses of the twenty-first century). It's been all down hill since then.

One of the first things the First Congress did was to pass a health care mandate for shipping firms and launch public infrastructure program to build what would be later called Cincinnati.  There no way that bullshit would have happened under the Articles of Confederation. But as we know, the forces of limited government lost that battle just as they have most every time the public demands a solution to a problem which the government is the best means to achieve.  Shit happens.

As life gets more and more complex and the economy ever so-much more specialized, the public will inevitably demand that the administrative system adapt.  Who should regulate nano-technology engineered products? How should nuclear energy security be managed?  Should society rely on technical administration by experts with decades of education and experience or on a group of folks selected from the Wasilla phone book?  I'd prefer not using the Wasilla phone book, but that is just me.