BY TOM WRIGHT
Santa Fe
Do you fear or trust the administrative state? We would like to trust a benevolent government who always has our best interest at heart, but the fact is the administrative state mostly supports its power and ability to tell us what to do and how to manage our lives. It is top down, micro-management oriented.
By definition, the administrative state is composed of politicians, government decision makers and lobbyist who push to advance their agenda and fund politicians who support their cause. The question becomes, “Is that always in the best interest of we the people?” Also selling their agenda are media outlets who have chosen sides and abandoned objective journalism.
Administrative state abuses are rife. No better example than that which we have witnessed in the Flynn unmasking and entrapment and the entire Democrat attempt to impeach the president, using false narratives. Now that new sworn testimony has been declassified, we find senior members of Obama’s intelligence community, FBI and DOJ found no evidence President Trump or members of his campaign team were conspiring with Russia to sway the election. This is sworn fact and different from what they were saying publicly. How now can a reasonable person trust what comes out of the mouths of state administrators?
There continues to be a mix of information coming from our health administrators, including the respected Dr. Anthony Fauci who told us in early February Americans had nothing to fear from the coronavirus and there was no scientific evidence that facemasks did any good at preventing the spread of the infection.
An honest mistake? Probably, but such misstatements give rise to conspiracy theories and cause public mistrust. Public health officials are even discrediting the use of hydroxychloroquine as being effective and even dangerous in the treatment of COVID-19, all in an effort to disprove President Trump’s support of this widely used and effective therapy. It’s over politics.
How can we trust officials who authorized the raid Roger Stone’s home with twenty-odd well-armed FBI agents to take the 67-year-old into custody?
Despite the new revelations of senior Obama officials having no knowledge of Trump conspiracy, some partisans continue to believe in the false narrative and remain all in the “get Trump” game. America is divided and largely over misleading statements from statists players.
Locally, politicians also pay a price for distrust as government overreach bleeds over into state politics. Conservative Democrats tried to warn the governor and her progressive cohorts about overspending, but the governor and progressives paid no attention and now they are having to revisit the state budget.
Now New Mexico’s progressive Democrat party is targeting their conservative legislators in the upcoming primary, in hopes of getting rid of a few. Never mind that they were right.
With our COVID-19 economic setback, there will be an ever-increasing tendency of our local statist to want to fix things. Our governor has followed dictated guidelines for social distancing. While opening parts of our economy, she has not seen the benefit of opening all areas of commerce. Even with incremental openings, an increase in COVID cases is expected. How the governor handles this is yet to be seen.
Retail can open, but shopping malls can’t. Reasonable? We are facing a retail apocalypse with small and large teetering on the verge of extinction. Shopping malls have excellent air handling systems and with proper distancing, should be safe for the masked public, but no. Many are disappointed and some are protesting her decisions.
Other states are opening. South Dakota, with half the population of New Mexico has never closed and has our nation’s lowest rate of infection at 0.44% per capita and a death rate of 0.005% per capita. Their mortality rate is 1.1% of those infected. Governor Kristi Noem has been hammered for not shutting down her state, but she felt a shutdown could breed a food shortage. After isolating 300 COVID-19 positive employees, she reopened a meat processing plant that helps feed the nation.
Sweden refused to shutter their economy, kept schools open and restricted groups larger than 50. Our administrative state has given us the 6ft rule, but WHO recommends one meter and Germany and Australia suggest 1.5 meters. Sweden, like Governor Noem suggest people simply use “good judgment.”
Hi, I’m from the government and I know what’s best for you.…. And there goes our free society, by fiat.