Not At All

I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

I know a number of people who would call themselves anything from Libertarians to Anarchists. (While I am given to understand that in some places outside of the United States, the two are considered synonymous, in common American usage, there's a fair amount of daylight between the two.) And they, for the most part, are all in favor of Mr. Thoreau's sentiment, even though they are not all aware of its source. For my part, I can sympathize. I've certainly had my share of occasions to wonder why this or that function or duty should be carried out by a department of government, when it seemed that others were as well, if not better, placed to take it up. And there are certainly things that people would prefer that government be involved in mainly because they view it as a means of exerting control over others. So there are times when I most definitely see the appeal of small government.

That particular ship, however, has set sail and gone out of sight of the shore, only to strike an iceberg and now find itself resting comfortably on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. And so those people who desire small government must instead console themselves with an incompetent or dysfunctional one. The House of Representatives being a case in point. With Representative Matt Gaetz and his supporters having ousted Representative Kevin McCarthy from the role of Speaker of the House without having a replacement candidate on deck, the process of electing and installing a new speaker has been something of, well, a disaster. (Not that this should be a surprise to anyone, really.) After Representative Steve Scalise concluded that he wouldn't be able to muster enough votes to win election and walked away from the job, Representative Jim Jordan gave it a shot. Being a favorite of the more conservative (for some definition of "conservative," that is) segment of the Republican Party, many people seemed to conclude that his election was something they were entitled to. Accordingly, those Republicans who were perceived as being insufficiently supportive pf Representative Jordan started to receive harassment and threats; and so did their families. Representative Jordan disavowed such tactics and took to social media to say: "hey. cut that out." (Because this is what's expected of politicians.) But the damage was already done, so now Representative Jordan has bowed (or been forced) out of consideration. This lead to a plan being being floated to give the current acting Speaker, Representative Patrick McHenry, more powers, so that he could take the role on more formally, and allow the House of Representatives to conduct business. It went over like a lead balloon. So as of now, there are about 10 Republican Representatives who are interested in the job. (And in keeping with popular stereotypes of the party, only one is non-White, and none are women.) We'll see if any of them manage to get anywhere.

In the meantime, no business is being conducted in the House of Representatives. Which is also in keeping with the Republican brand. Personally, I would rather have seen Republicans work to create private sector or civil society institutions to take over those functions that they feel that government doesn't do well, but this way plays well in Peoria, I suppose. (Not that I've been back to Peoria anytime recently.) I understand those people for whom gridlock is the closest thing to a genuinely small and unobtrusive government (or at least one that will only bother people they don't like) that they are going to get, and so understand there to be a silver lining in all of the Republican infighting. But I suspect that it will be short-lived if it prompts people to vote for representatives who believe in getting things done.