The Government That Governs Least Governs Best

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Government at all levels of America is a vast wasteland of tragic inefficiency and incompetence. People are paid relatively large sums of money to do nothing—or even worse, to screw things up. The Coronavirus pandemic lockdowns have underscored that fact. Many government workers stayed home and did essentially nothing for long periods of time; and some are still doing that.

When I worked in the Pentagon during the height of the Vietnam War, it was affectionately referred to as “Fort Fumble” by many who worked there. The feeling was that the only reason we had survived as a nation was that our enemies were more incompetent than we were. The fact is that JFK-Robert McNamara-Lyndon Johnson’s War never should have been fought in the first place.

Approximately 55,000 Americans died for nothing, and some were my friends. Many more were maimed for life, physically and mentally. Fast forward to George W. Bush’s Afghan and Iraq Wars, and the pattern was repeated. But incompetence spreads across all levels of government, from the highest federal departments in Washington, D.C., to the local offices of the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies, to the offices of the lowest levels of state and local governments.

Government does not work, period. The FBI and Department of Justice are corrupt, and routinely manipulated for political purposes.[2] Indeed, the coin of the realm in Washington and elsewhere for lawyers and lobbyists is their ability to influence and obtain results. In the process, they provide prostitutes or simply young girls who are trying to climb the social ladder of Washington and other power centers—including the lowest levels.[3]

None of this would constitute the tragedy that it is if Russia’s KGB-trained killer Vladimir Putin was not threatening nuclear war if he does not get his way in Ukraine and beyond; and if China was not poised to invade Taiwan, and move elsewhere in the world.  Americans cannot afford to have a leadership vacuum, with its layers of government performing at less than is possible—and World War III possibly staring us in the face.

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© 2022, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/the-united-states-department-of-injustice/ (“The United States Department of Injustice”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/washington-is-sick-and-the-american-people-know-it/ (“Washington Is Sick And The American People Know It”)