tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16095608.post115626928909309580..comments2023-10-10T05:45:24.878-07:00Comments on The Data Port: Why Conservatives Can’t GovernArt Jacobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14354951975503040483noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16095608.post-1156729675694097242006-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:002006-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00Very interesting post, Art, and a terrific article...Very interesting post, Art, and a terrific article. Will state up front I am not a political science professor at Boston University and don’t pretend to operate at that level. Still, I do have some remarks.<BR/><BR/><I><B>Paradigms are shifting when…</B><BR/><BR/>There are increased arguments about seeing and doing<BR/>There are extensive reports and data on failures<BR/>There is increasing dissatisfaction and confusion amongst practitioners<BR/>Performance deteriorates and alters political order<BR/>There is an increased search for alternative approaches.</I><BR/><BR/>Richard Heydinger<BR/><BR/>If we think of the government as an "employee" that has a "job to do" and for that job gets paid its tax revenues, the conservative viewpoint is one that wants to have the employee take on less responsibility, a smaller job description, and receive less pay.<BR/><BR/>I assert that this is complete lunacy in the face of current reality. I think the job always has, currently is, and perhaps always will be subject to "scope creep" that will only accelerate before it has any chance of subsiding.<BR/><BR/>The true job description is getting bigger, not smaller, with several unavoidable factors increasing the load on our government’s plate. <BR/><BR/>1. Our collision course with sustainability issues, of which global warming is just the beginning.<BR/>2. Rapid advances in technology<BR/>3. Globalization<BR/>4. Equity issues (elite few have almost everything), which is a major root of the war on terror as well as immigration. So long as huge populations live in squalor or near squalor with little or no sense of possibility or change, they will either try to beat us (terrorism) or join us (immigration).<BR/>5. Aging US population and upcoming healthcare and social security train wreck.<BR/><BR/>At least with Clinton, we had an administration seeking to govern effectively. Will skip supporting examples—they are numerous and not difficult to find.<BR/><BR/>We desperately need elected officials who are far more concerned with understanding the real job to be done and getting it done effectively and efficiently, and far less concerned with cutting the government’s paycheck (not their own, of course) and leaving critical tasks done with sheer incompetence (prescription drugs, Iraq (senior most decisions)) or not done at all (dependence on oil, global warming, healthcare).<BR/><BR/>Really praying that the complete disaster of the Bush administration wakes enough folks up to not only say <B>Never Again!</B> to anyone like him, but also to the obsolete ideas on which his views are based.x4mrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726002265345298344noreply@blogger.com