In Praise of the Do-IT-Yourself-State: Missouri

On May 16, Barbara Shelly wrote in the Kansas City Star  (http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/16/4240241/who-needs-legislators-in-the-do.html) a condemnation of Senate Republicans for permitting a state highway funding program to fail.  Senate Joint Resolution No. 16 would have placed on the ballot a proposal to amend the Missouri Constitution to impose a one percent sales tax to reconstruct Highway 70 and make other transportation improvements.  Because the Senate permitted this measure to fail, she proclaimed, “That is the new Missouri way.  Don’t look to your state legislature to get things done.  In the do-it-yourself state, initiative is everything.”  But she says this as if it were a bad thing.  One would almost think, sloth had become a virtue in the state of Missouri.  I am here in praise of the new attitude, her new Do-It-Yourself State.

We Americans have always been known for our initiative, for our willingness to get things done.  At least we used to be a people who prided ourselves for pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.  That was part of the American dream, the possibility of making ourselves better by our own sweat and toil.  Was it not John F. Kennedy who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”  Has that really all changed in the state of Missouri?

Now, in the State-Take-Care-Of-Me utopia, the state should provide for management of police, voting, healthcare, personal ethics, and economic development.  No doubt, the state should take care of some of these, but this list is proposed without any consideration of distinguishing things not to be done by government.  One might almost hypothesize that Senator Lamping should provide my nightly dinner and cook it for me.

We must first ask whether these things are within the proper role of government.  We can all agree that governments exist to execute justice.  Therefore, the police, voting rights and the administration of a sound court system are within the jurisdiction of the state.  As to my healthcare, I do not want Senator Lamping having to do a daily workout for me.  How I insure my health is up to me.  And it is not in the purview of the state government to give special benefits to some at the expense of others in order to make my economic efforts thrive.  Economic development is simply that: economic development and not government development.  My health and economic development are my concern and they should be left to me to nurture through initiative.  Any other thinking is the very core of injustice.  In such things, it is good to leave room for initiative.

Initiative is a good thing.  There are proverbs galore extolling industry a virtue and sloth a vice. 

How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
    When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want like an armed man.

or

Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
    open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

As our industrial infrastructure begins to fail, we must remember our circumstances.  We are bankrupt as a nation.  We will need money for our aging transportation system, but we have none.  We have mortgaged the future of our children to reward sloth in our State-Take-Care-Of-Me utopia.  We have bailouts, we have employment security, we have social security, we have funding for arts, we have subsidized housing, we have green power, we have everything we want, but we have no wealth.  It is time to ask if we can continue to spend our way into the easy life.  In such a circumstance, it will be necessary for our citizens to reengage their initiative.

The duty of a legislative body is the protection of the rights of a minority against the whims and avarice of a majority.  This is the glory of a constitutional republic.  In this regard, the Senate did its job in protecting the citizens of the state against the confiscation of their property.  It let the proposal die.  It did take frothy eloquence, as Shelly puts it, to defeat the unjust proposal.  Unfortunately, the frothy eloquence was necessary.  If our law makers would simply ask the question “is this just” before they propose our laws, we would need much less frothy debate.  Thank you Senator Lamping for your leadership in the Senate in creating an opportunity for initiative.