Local government – with emphasis on the word “local” – matters more now than ever before. Tragically, despite the desperate need for good local government, local autonomy has never been weaker. Some of the blame for this tragedy lies with we the citizens and some with the elite political class, for the citizen has handed over control and the elite establishment has eagerly scooped it up and devoured it.
At some point, schools and parents ceased teaching true civics to young minds. We neglected our duty to stay informed and involved. We stopped running for office. We failed to decline the cupcake offers from Albany and Washington to take over. We naively procured the bribe money (aka “grants” and “aid”) that forged the chains that now bind us like beasts to cold hard Masters. We failed to think through the long-term consequences of becoming pawns financially beholden to Kings and Queens.
So here we are, communities witnessing the dying gasps of independent local government. True, local officials will not literally disappear. But their independence will (and in many cases already has). They will be – if they are not yet – mere extension of the greater power centered in distant capitals. They will become administrative appendages and automated enforcers of decrees pressed down from above. Their loyalty will be to the Crown and the Dollar rather than the constituent, the citizen, the neighbor, and friend. The local officials will be warmly welcomed to an exclusive group, the Master Class, so long as they toe the line, mouth the words, and think the thoughts the despots and the bureaucrats have approved.
We are close to this becoming reality. The ruling class and their media mouthpieces have called it the “New Normal” and have ushered it in by “reimagining” this and “reimaging” that. Good hearted citizens and well-intended local officials have been caught off-guard and confused, many unable to believe that tyranny is here because they wrongly think of tyranny as bloody when in reality it can be very clean and sterile. The lovely heritage of freedom which has blessed the American landscape for centuries has ironically made it difficult for Americans to wisely recognize when the tyrannical wolf is knocking on the door and seeking to blow the house down.
In this historic moment in which the wolf is tapping and banging and peaking in the windows and inhaling sharply in preparation to blast us with his soon exhaled breath, we need local officials to stand the remaining ground and refuse to retreat. We need them to protect the house and its occupants – the common man, the ordinary citizen, the heart and soul of America.
The beauty of independent local government is that it knows the community. It understands the local flavor and the unique needs and strengths of its people. Local officials have the most knowledge of the towns and villages and cities and inhabitants of the districts they represent. They know what works and they know what doesn’t. They know what is profitable and what is detrimental in the distinct districts that are their homes. It is at the local level that common sense and friendliness thrive. It is here that humanity lives and carries on. It is here that names are known, and people still matter as individuals, not numbers.
Plato wrote in the “Republic” that “The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.” And this sums it up. We are well aware that the power of Albany and Washington is “superior” – in the sense that they sadly possess more of it. But we are also well aware that Albany and Washington, while superior in size of power, is absolutely inferior in quality of power. Elected officials and bureaucrats who live far away and neither know us nor our communities are inferior in their ability or desire to righteously govern. It is only at the local level when we interact with people who live life with us that equality becomes reality. You see, American shouldn’t be afraid of their government. But we are, aren’t we? We are fearful that they will shut us down or fine us or in some way limit our lives. We approach the government with nervousness, aware that they have more power over us now than we do over them. The very thing that the Founding Fathers dreaded now dogs our days – a distant government which has cast off its restraints, neutralized local control, and turned citizens into subjects.
And thus local control matters for all who intend to be citizens rather than subjects. Local autonomy is beautiful because it is, in every way, superior to the cold authority of centralized government that fails to see the faces of the unique individuals that populate the land. Local officials possess the capacity to remember humanity and care about people. Local officials are closer to us. They are us. They live and work and worship with us. Their children know our children. Their struggles are our struggles. Their losses are our losses. Their victories are our victories. Because they recognize our humanity and know our names, they are more likely to secure our liberties.
Yes, in every way big and small, local government is superior.