Government is a most discouraging aspect of existence because it is a pervasive given.  In the hearts of 99 percent of readers is the desire to be left alone by government.  My daughter-in-law started a small charity venture several years ago, and it has grown wildly.  She was originally of a liberal bent but now sees government negatively intruding into her efforts.  She may not be on board the Trump train, but she has jumped over to the libertarian track. 

She wants government to leave her alone, but no!  Even charitable ventures must come with their own gift wrapping of red tape.  No good enterprise goes unregulated. 

I am not conversant in how the government intrudes in my daughter-in-law's enterprise, but the reality of the intrusion has reformed her.  If there is anything good coming out of the Biden administration, it is that her reformation is being replicated across America.  The reason for this is that the leviathan's  intrusions are now directed at the personal enterprise called the "individual American."  The intrusions are striking Americans as increasingly more strident, absurd, and hurtful.

I am reminded of the song by the '80s new wave band, Missing Persons: "All I Need Is a Window to Look Through."  Their commentary on social isolation now takes on new meaning.  People are looking through their windows, and they can't help but see the whack-job that government has become.  The visible government doesn't seem to worry about hiding it.  It's out in the open.  Government is politics.  Politics is government, and everything now has or seems to have a political/governmental glaze.  The media, entertainment, business, our children's education, our jobs, our leisure — it's all politicized, and, thus, we view our daily lives, by extension, "red taped" by government at all levels.  One cannot even live mildly isolated from government anymore.

Consider, in the aggregate and without irony, all the news stories piling up that reveal the wretched, polluted state of politics and government: cancel culture sweetheart Jussie Smollett's hoax conviction, CNN's Don Lemon tipping off Smollett that the police are "looking at him," the massive "smash and grab" at the San Francisco Nordstrom, Pelosi's insane defense of her insider stock transactions, Kamala admitting that the government was caught flat-footed by the delta and omicron variants, the endless COVID-19 fails of The Oracle Fauci and the CDC, Biden obviously not running the country, male athletes dominating women's swimming, the recent private rescue of those (unofficial) Americans and their children from Afghanistan, parents labeled as domestic terrorists for protesting at school board meetings, the current shortage of candy canes, Joe Manchin's welcome "no" to BBB, Obama gushing over Spielberg's woke West Side Story even as it tanks — and the real-world kicker, INFLATION, is actually ruining America's economy, the holidays, and next year. 

These are revealing stories because, taken together, they make more visible the vast accumulating garbage of ugly, all-pervasive government and politics.  The real garbage will come out next.  The reformation has begun.  I don't think it can be stopped.

Spruce Fontaine is an artist and retired college art instructor.

Image via Max Pixel.

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