The Things We Do Together

HT: Newmark on this 2008 response:

Massachusetts Governor: Deval Patrick, last night:

“This is the kind of leadership [Obama] offers to bring to the presidency — not because government can solve every problem in everybody’s life; but because ‘government,’ as Barney Frank likes to say, is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together.”

While the phrase may sound good to Frank and laid off Hallmark card copywriters, it’s meaningless and stupid. Apparently the things we choose to do together include IRS audits, seizing privately-held land under Kelo v. City of New London, building Bridges to Nowhere, giving subsidies to sugar producers and foreign aid to the Egyptian government, bans on the use of private land because endangered species may be present at times, and the line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Having said that, it’s nice to see Patrick, Frank, and the Democrats recognizing that the Iraq War, the interrogation of detainees, eavesdropping on suspected terrorists, research and development on advanced weapons systems, and capital punishment are “things we do together.”

Newmark's commenters add that the things we do together are also called "corporation," and remind us of what Thomas Paine said: "Society is a product of our wants and government is a product of our wickedness."