Can Do--- A Good Perspective from Newt Gingrich

I just finished reading a great article entitled "Can Do" by Newt Gingrich at National Review Online. Speaker Gingrich gives a forceful reminder of what has made America great--- free-enterprise, capitalism, and American ingenuity; and also warns against the governmental incompetency that drags us down. He writes very accurately that

"More small businesses and scientific breakthroughs are produced in America than anywhere else in the world. However, there is a growing gap between the world that works - the innovation and efficiency that (with some notable exceptions) we see in the private sector - and the world that fails — the exponentially expanding parade of waste and incompetence with which we suffer from our government bureaucracies."

Unfortunately, many Americans, while they have a general dislike of "big government" and may even realize why they dislike it and decry its inefficiency, do not have the will to give up the government handouts and benefits that they enjoy for themselves. Humans are by nature greedy, and will seek to fulfill their needs through the easiest route possible. Many see the legalized redistribution of wealth from the rest of society through government as that easiest route---but fail to realize that the basic inefficiency of government and the dependency that its programs create are ultimately of great harm to the prosperity of a nation and its individual citizens. I am generally wary of "gloom-and-doom" reporting and editorializing, but I whole-heartedly agree with Gingrich when he says that "It is clear that the machinery of government is broken. It’s been so corroded by red tape and the bureaucratic self-preservation of members of permanent government that we are reaching a crisis of competency in our government’s capacity to execute its core functions."

For America to remain a leader in the world, both economically and politically, it must return to those principles that have made it great and set it apart in Western civilization. As Newt says, "We must bring the principles that have built America and made it great — hard work, entrepreneurialism, innovation, and optimism — to our greatest national challenges." And this change will only happen when the individual voters of the country return to these great principles themselves and speak their convictions through the ballot box. The bureaucracy that forms a large (and often illegitimate) part of government "of, by, and for the people" will and cannot fix itself--- it requires the intervention of those who compose it if change is to occur.