Judging

Those deluded segments of society who have faith in government as ardent as others have faith in the Lord are able to accept that the people who run government are corrupt but can't bring themselves to recognize that the nature of government is corruption. Unlike Sobran I believe corruption can be rooted out of government, but doing so would demand a seizure of power back to the people so as to effectively make politicians impotent to do their damaging work. However without a society composed of people who accept what Percy Bysshe Shelley says here about government, "Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay," no such government will be able to withstand the sinfulness of individuals who aspire the mantle of power.

Joe Sobran delves into this with this quote from 5/4/06.

One of man’s oldest follies is the belief that such authority can exist and that some men can, and must, be trusted with it. Democracy supposedly gives everyone a fair share of it. We all get to help choose our rulers. What could be fairer than that? And yet, for some reason, politician is a disreputable word in democracies. People speak of government with irony even as they demand that it improve their lives. Last week Jean-François Revel, an eloquent champion of democracy, died in France at 82. In his book The Totalitarian Temptation he made the arresting observation that whereas other systems were judged by their records, Communism was judged by its promises — no matter how often they had been brutally broken. Revel aimed his barb at Europe’s leftist intelligentsia. But doesn’t the aphorism really apply to government in general? No matter how much harm it does, men continue to believe in its promises. Individuals are blamed for its failures, as Bush is being blamed now, but most of us persist in thinking that this is a mere personnel problem, not a problem intrinsic to the very nature of government. The wrong men are in power. We can see that power is handed over to the “right” men in the next election! Somehow, though, the “right” men never seem to turn up. After a short time, we find that those in whom we placed our hopes were just a new set of wrong men. Bill Clinton was the wrong man for the presidency. George W. Bush would restore morality, honor, resolve, and other fine things to the White House. Now look! As long as there is government, the wrong men will rule. This is not a prediction. It’s an axiom.

I say there are proper men to rule us all. They are deaf, dumb, and blind with an intellect on par with the greatest minds of mankind but without the falcuties to force their fancies down the throat of every one else.