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Comment by camiller | Hacker News Reader

note, the following is from the curmudgeonly/cynical side of my personality.

Gridlock is a feature not a defect. Gridlock is what keeps politicians from running roughshod over the public. Have you really considered how much damage a government unhampered by gridlock could do? I mean yes, they might slip something good in there once in a while but really...

ask not what your country can do for you

nor ask what can you do for your country

ask instead what can you do to keep your country from "doing" to you.

vote gridlock!

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I once heard someone say that the last thing people want is an efficient government. Imagine if, as soon as your vehicle registration expired, a state official drove up and put a boot on your car.

I heard someone else say, the best relationship you can have with government is one where their attention is not focused on you.

If the only thing standing between you and a police state is the inefficiency of the police, you've already got big, BIG problems.

Imagine if, as soon as someone started robbing a bank, the police showed up and stopped them.

The second one I like to an extent. Its true if you have a government whose objective is to protect its citizens and nothing else. Democrats want a government that actively helps people. If implemented correctly I'd want that government's attention. As with most things, ideas are easy, good implementation is hard.

Why stop there? Government could monitor all potential bank robber's communications, or hell, even profile them, send in undercover agents to infiltrate their circles and provide them with fake bank-robbing tools, ideal target bank locations, and moral support.

Now you're talking. Do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?

I think the original quote is attributed to Eugene McCarthy: "The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty."

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