Trump and his posse have obviously hit the ground running -- but the real picture of unfolding events is yet to be resolved. We seem to be realizing that the defect in our various governments is not entirely contained among the woke, leftist Democrats… but is rather a problem involving our entire political establishment.

How else could such immense mishandling of public money be so easily uncovered so quickly? Add to this the lack of normal internal auditing and the years and years of such accumulated malfeasance. It seems that looking the other way has been a routine practice among both the elected and unelected members of the government.

Uniquely among nations, the United States was created on the concept of the sovereignty of the individual. Jefferson’s yeoman farmer and Franklin’s pragmatic observer of the natural world were intended to flourish once the shackles of tyranny were lifted from their beings.

There was, however, a serious defect embedded in our founding -- which was responsible for delaying the announcement of the Declaration of Independence by two days -- while some of Jefferson’s anti-slavery language was expunged from the document. Eighty-four years later the nation was plunged into an enormously costly civil war to ultimately resolve the issue.

Historians point to the shifting of executive power from the governors of the several states to the singular president in Washington as a consequence of the Civil War. This was largely to enforce conscription, since fleeing from one’s home state would put someone beyond the reach of their local militia’s draft board. Centralized government would inevitably impede the exercise of individual freedom by imposing a one-size-fits-all administrative style on the whole nation.

Now, democratic governments composed of fallible human beings can never be perfect. But we are now learning that little, if any, error control rules and procedures were ever in place… and Trump has only been president for a few weeks. Not being a career politician, and as a successful entrepreneur, President Trump has long experience with problem solving. Having been self-employed most of my life, I learned long ago that the key to solving problems is diagnosis… identifying the specific problem that needs to be solved. There are a lot of red herrings out there.

A little known though classic example of a presidential bungle occurred almost a century ago in 1934, during the second year of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term. The problem FDR was trying to solve involved the operating deficit of the Post Office. Sound familiar? He tried to compel the various airlines that handled air mail to lower their rates. They refused. So, Roosevelt had the Army Air Corps take over the transport of air mail. The Air Corps, however, didn’t have the necessary planes or the properly trained personnel to do the job. As a result, sixty-five planes crashed, and twelve aviators lost their lives. Had Pres. Trump been in FDR’s position, he most likely would have made himself sufficiently informed of the actual readiness of the Air Corps for the mail task, and as a result would have sought a different bargain.

Again, our entire political establishment -- not just a particular ideology -- is on trial here. Now, of course, woke statist progressives are the primary advocates for more government… but there are other snakes hiding under the rug.

Rising to the surface is the legitimacy of elections. They will never be perfect, but reasonable requirements can make a huge difference. I like to say that the Mexican equivalent of Hallowe’en, Dia de los Muertos, is also celebrated in Chicago… where, every election, the dead rise up to vote. It is also absurd that producing an authentic picture identification card in order to vote is an unfair and burdensome requirement -- since such is already necessary, not just to purchase adult beverages, but also to buy a compressed gas dispenser in order to blow away the accumulated potato chip crumbs from one’s keyboard.

Bottom line: Cheating by government operatives has been institutionalized, not suppressed. Why? Government is a monopoly -- not subject to competitive pressures. Hence, over time the malfeasances mount up. Why have not previous administrations exploited this pro-taxpayer advocacy? Answer: Because they could easily get away with what they’ve been doing instead. That is, until now.

Image: AT via Magic Studio