Where Governmental Incompetence Ends and Malice Begins

The greatest dilemma of the age of Obama is whether to describe our government as dumb and inefficient or evil. Hanlon’s Razor states: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Indeed, much of our government’s activities can only be explained by stupidity. Conservative advocacy is at its easiest when we libertarians are asserting the general ineptitude of The State. It is everywhere. Sometimes it is lightheartedly funny, as when the nice woman at the state park tells you they will have more souvenirs when “we get more funds at the beginning of the physical year,” or when Congressman Hank Johnson frets over the possibility that Guam could “tip over, and uh… capsize” with the addition of 25,000 additional residents.

Sometimes government idiocy takes on a more dark humor, as when a DEA agent shoots himself in the leg while telling a group of schoolchildren that he is the “only one professional enough to carry the Glock 40.” Sometimes the unfiltered stupidity of our government infuriates us, as when anti-voucher politicians like President Obama fill public schools full of third world children while their own progeny go to private school, or when they tell us that “guns on our streets” are a danger to “the children” while their own children are surrounded by armed guards at every instant. Sometimes government ineptitude saddens us, ruins our day, and causes us to oscillate between the depths of despair and blind rage, as when we see pictures of toddlers about to eat a mouthful of AK-47 rounds: Every time I see that picture, I want to wash that kid off, feed him some oatmeal, and go outside to play. And I want to do things to the men on the other end of those barrels that do not merit discussion on American Thinker, only fulfillment without note. But most of all, I am ashamed as an American that my tax dollars funded what surely happened next. I am ashamed as an Iraq vet that we left the decent people in that country to such a fate after we upturned the political order that at least granted them life. My generation’s ‘Saigon evacuation,’ the ISIS debacle in Iraq, is a more difficult case for Hanlon’s Razor. Could our foreign policy apparatus be so stupid as to not have seen this coming? After all, I knew that Iraq would quickly descent into chaos should America fail to leave a small contingent behind, and without the benefit of an Ivy League education. This humiliating and heartbreaking disaster was widely predicted when Obama neglected to negotiate a status of force agreement which could have left a small American stabilizing force in Iraq. I believe that Barrack Obama is simply too narcissistic to be a closet advocate of Sunni Islam, but I do believe that he was willing to discard peace in Iraq for electoral benefit. Throwing away a hard-fought victory for a cheap win at the polls (voter turnout was down sharply in 2012) most certainly rises to the level of malice. When James O’Keefe of Project Veritas crossed the Rio Grande dressed as Bin Laden, he was clearly making a mockery of government ineptitude. While the video is a funny spectacle, the thesis is just slightly wrong. Our unsecured border is really a case of the Federal government waging war on one hated demographic, and one obsolete demographic. The elites of this country hate white people for being too independent minded; in 2012 a USDA office disdainfully described white Appalachian residents who would not take food stamps as being afflicted with “mountain pride.” The US Chamber of Commerce simply cares far more about corporate profits than the citizens of the country, as evident by their endless push for amnesty. They are nakedly advocating in order to drive wages down. Such a scheme can only work when government’s large safety net picks up the legions of unemployed. The foolish business-Republicans have clearly not considered the taxes which will surely be required to pay for this policy. The American citizenry is getting in the way of the American government. The case is even sadder for Black America. They simply are not breeding fast enough, and have fallen out of favor with the Democratic Party. Black Americans are being driven from the workforce, and even historically black neighborhoods like Compton, Los Angeles by the new, more favored demographic. Straight out of Compton, indeed! If you find yourself flummoxed as to the cause of some government caper, merely ask “who benefits from doing this, and who benefits from letting it happen?” In some cases, such as when NASA crashed a Mars orbiter, nobody benefits and thus the proximate answer is clearly stupidity (stupidity caused by laziness, and laziness caused by non-concern over other people’s money). In cases such as a completely ineffective half-century War on Poverty, a small dose of cynicism on the part of the reader should suffice to name an entire list of vultures feasting on the carcass of this particular government boondoggle. In closing, don’t fear our government too much: as any veteran can attest, it is truly a hive of inanity behind the fancy departmental crests and silly titles. However, don’t snicker at our overlords too heartily, for they might just be checkmating us all. Brae Jager blogs at braejager.blogspot.com