NASCAR Sponsor Signs for Politicians a Great Idea

“It would be really helpful if every single one of these politicians would do like the NASCAR drivers do — and it’s been said before — but let them wear their sponsors plastered all over their three-piece suits when they show up so we know what side they’re on and who they’re actually doing their bidding for.” [Sarah Palin]

It’s a brilliant idea. Not because it would solve the problem, but because it would expose the real problem. The real problem is that government and Congress are in the business of business.

Government is not supposed to be actively involved in business. At most, government exists to uphold contracts, settle civil disagreements and prosecute criminal violations of force. Most of this can be done at the state and local level. We hear a lot about government playing the role of “referee” or “mediator.” But this analogy implies an objective, detached and neutral role for the government. Talk to any U.S. Senator, particularly one who’s been in office for 40 and 50 years, and you will find neither objectivity nor neutrality.

Truth in marketing seems to apply to everyone except politicians. The reason it keeps happening? Because the majority of us let them get away with it. Why?

When someone asks me in a therapy session why someone close to them keeps doing something obviously wrong or destructive, my first reply usually is, “They’re getting something out of it.” The “something” need not be rational or right. It often isn’t. But there is a subjective “something” there, for sure. Drug addicts and alcoholics abuse substances to escape anxiety or emotional pain, or to evade reality. Similarly, voters keep installing people in Congress to do them favors. What they forget is that by allowing politicians to play this role in the first place, we bring everyone down…including ourselves, in the end.

Political involvement in business seems like a no-brainer at first, kind of like a drug or alcohol addiction makes sense — at first. You get perks, your community or neighborhood gets new jobs, or relief from burdensome taxes or regulations denied to competitors. But after enough time with the war of all against all perpetuated by government intervention in business, you start to see…well, what we see now. The ugly and corrupt swamp. Everyone has been bought and sold a hundred times over. Look at the Obamacare “repeal” fiasco. There’s no longer even any pretense. Our federal government is a swamp, oozing with bipartisan corruption. And it’s mostly because we let government get into the business of business. We never should have allowed it! Ours should be the generation to end it all. If it doesn’t end soon, our whole government will drown in that vile swamp.

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