Do You Have to Be a Statist to Be In Government?

Senator Melinda Smyser (R-11) lays out her philosophy of government in a Statesman profile piece:

A long-time activist in Republican and Canyon County politics, Smyser subscribes to a simple political philosophy: Keep government out of our lives…

Smyser, a member of the Health and Welfare, the Commerce and the Agricultural Affairs committees, said she has been astounded by some of the bureaucracy in state agencies and the Legislature.

“We’ve got a lot of government going on. That’s what I’ve found out,” Smyser said.

Of course, this enough to set-off the Ultra-Statist of the Idaho Blogosphere. Writes Alan at Idablue:

First off, Ms. Smyser, if you want government out of your life, why are you in government? Wouldn’t it have been more consistent with your philosophy to decline the appointment to the legislature? Right now, isn’t your life kind of all about government?

Do you ride a horse from Parma, or where ever you are staying in session, to the legislature, or do you use the government-built roads to drive around? How about those government traffic signals? Do you rely on them to hold traffic for you, or should you get those out of your life as well? Are you happy that other drivers must be licensed and meet minimum standards of competency, or would you prefer to just have a free-for-all?

Ah, it’s the Idaho left’s favorite False dilemma. Either you want a gigantic superstate that regulates every area of your life and strangles commerce in the state or you want total and complete anarchy where instead of the rules of the road who gets to go first at a stop sign is settled with a gun fight.

I think maybe there’s some ground in between those two extremes. Alan’s argument is that you shouldn’t be involved in government unless you venerate in all forms, increased government roles in people’s lives. I wonder if anyone told that to these guys?

“[Some] seem to think that [civilization's] advance has brought on too complicated a state of society, and that we should gain in happiness by treading back our steps a little way. I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it.-Thomas Jefferson.

“Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”-Jefferson

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.”-George Washington.

Of course, America’s founders are not in very high regard on the far left. If they bothered to study the people who started this nation, they would find they did not like them. After all, according to Alan, the people who started this nation had no business being involved in government.