RELEVANCY

I have recently become a fan of Red State—ever since I found their app for my iTouch. Kudos to Vladimir, Moe Lane, Jeff Lukens, Erick Erickson, and all the contributors!

A recent entry, "EPA: Mission Creep on Steroids," got me thinking about relevancy, and for good political reason.

I too remember the trash strewn along every highway, dying fish in the Great Lakes, smog so thick in Los Angeles that I could not see the airport from the tarmac. America fell out of love with the land. There were other startling realities that grabbed people's attention: the bald eagle was going the way of the dinosaur, along with geese, ducks, and the buffalo. A river—you know "water"—had caught fire.

As Red State wisely points out, much of that has changed, "The air and the water are cleaner," and some small credit goes to the EPA (private citizens and businesses were already busy taking responsible action. The EPA was something of an after-thought). But if the air is healthier, the water purer, the forests are bustling, and the wildlife flourishes, what is the EPA to do?

Scramble for relevancy, that's what. They have to find a political reason to exist and if they've done too good a job, their relevancy is at risk.

Most aging entities, be they people or institutions, reach a point at which they have accomplished most of what they set out to do and begin to questions the meaning of life—to question their own relevancy. That's where the EPA and many "services" of Washington are today. Only by intruding into our lives do they get to remain relevant.

As the nanny state grows and grows, as the government assumes control over more and more entitlements, from college loans to health care, from air bags in our cars to HD TVs, they remind "We the people" that they are relevant by-gum, and they desperately need for us to believe it too.

If we had said "no" to governmentally mandated high definition television, Washington's relevancy would have been neutered. Had we said "no" sooner and louder to thousands of unread pages of legislation, those who govern us would have become more and more irrelevant, and they cannot stand for that.