I’ll take the speed boat Chris.

Last night I happened to catch a very small bit of Chris Matthews on the David Letterman show. In the segment I heard, Chris Matthews made a statement that was something along the lines of, “I’ve always thought of politics as like buying a car. You go in and argue over the price until you come to an agreement and buy the car. The problem in Washington is that they won’t even sit down to ‘argue the price’.”

Sadly he has apparently forgotten, or chooses to ignore, the principle involved in buying a car – both sides have agreed on what they are doing. The car dealer wants to sell a car and the individual wants to buy a car. Once you have agreed on the principle, all that is left is negotiating over the details: the price, the color, and maybe some optional accessories. But what if the seller wants to sell a car but the individual wants to buy a speed boat? Is it still rational for him to negotiate about the price of a car when he wants a speed boat?

The same holds true in politics and governing. When everyone agrees on a principle, national defense for example, it is rational to negotiate how best to achieve that goal: how much money to spend, what to spend it on, and so forth. If you don’t agree on the principle however, it is not rational to negotiate on the details. Imagine these two sides: one believes the government should only protect the individual rights of the citizens and the other believes that the government should violate the rights of the citizens when necessary if it is in the “public interest.” Is it rational for the first side to negotiate on how much or in what instances the government can violate those rights? As Ayn Rand put it: “In any compromise between food and poison, poison wins.”

Sadly, I believe the vast majority in government today want to “buy a car.” Which is to say they want to grow the statist government, increasingly infringing on the rights of citizens. For the “public good” of course. They are merely arguing over the color and accessories.

I only hope there are enough people in government willing to hold out for that speed boat.