Stop the Presses column by Chris Graham
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We hear a lot of talk about common-sense government – but then we don’t see anything close to that being put into practice, by those who espouse the idea or otherwise.
Here, to me, is common-sense government at work.
Defend me. Keep the bad guys from other countries away from our borders. Make sure the bad guys that are here don’t do bad things, and when they do them anyway, make sure that they don’t do them anymore.
Take care of the basics. Water and sewer are now basics. Our caveman forebears might disagree, but they are now. Trash service is a basic. Roads without potholes and without congestion are basics. Focus, people.
Educate my kids. Another basic, but one that needs to have its own bolded heading. The emphasis here – so that our kids can be productive members of society and might want to do more with their free time than watch “American Idol” and “Monday Night Raw.”
Stay the hell off my back. How I live my life is none of your damned business. How you live yours is none of my damned business. Agree here, and life becomes so much the simpler.
A level playing field. Of all the things that we’re not good at, this is #1. Blacks, Latinos, women, gays and lesbians are still less equal. Working-class and poor folks are less equal. This is shameful. Can I get an amen?
Put these principles to work, and we’ve got us a common-sense government.
And here’s the kicker – we wouldn’t need to worry about the lobbyists spending millions to try to manipulate the system, because they could spend all the money in the world, and it wouldn’t matter a lick.
The only problem – yeah, I know, it’s too easy a model to follow. And too many people have a vested interest in maintaining the complicated order that we’ve been building for ourselves lo these past 220 years.
That can easily – I’ll repeat that, easily – corrected.
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Chris Graham
