OPINION: You can’t dodge DOGE

“The secret of getting ahead is to simply get started.” Mark Twain

Twenty-six years ago, on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1999, my wife and I started our hike of a lifetime. We began to backpack the Appalachian Trail. Beginning at Springer Mountain in northern Georgia, the trail continues for over 2,000 miles and ends in Baxter State Park, Maine. Our intention was to complete the trail by early October.

Backpacking means that you carry everything you need to live on the trail, with several days between towns. We carried enough food, clothing and shelter for at least five to seven days before we could resupply. We were living and enjoying the freedom of the trail.

About 32 days and 230 miles later we decided it was time to change our destination. After a phone call home, we were reminded that our six-year-old granddaughter was scheduled for her first dance recital in about a month.

We were enjoying the trail. We were enjoying meeting and mixing with new friends. We discovered that carrying our backpacks eight to 14 miles a day, while great fun, was not as much fun as we had anticipated. We also discovered that we did not want to miss out on the special activities in the lives of our grandchildren.

We decided to change our priorities and go home. We started on a new trail. We have never regretted either the hike or the early return home.

Following Mark Twain’s advice, we started to a new destination, Iowa. We “got started” towards a new destination, a new life style and a much more meaningful relationship with our family.

The United States of America is undergoing a similar change of destination.

For a little over a hundred years, our nation has been traveling along the trail of centralized government. This trail was a different trail than the United States had begun in 1776. That trail was the trail named: “Of the people, For the people and By the people.”

The trail started at the point of subjugation to a foreign nation, England, and led to independence and freedom. Our people enjoyed the freedoms of self-governing under the Constitution of the United States. We had a central government that led to self-gratification and self-success.

By the late 1800s the United States had grown in size and in power. The United States of America was successfully living under the constitution. Our citizens were well educated, prosperous and respected by the entire world. Our citizens were among the happiest and most free citizens of the world.

At about that time we began to start toward a new destination. We had been on the trail of self-determination. The new trail was one of government direction and control.

Over the next one hundred plus years, presidents of every persuasion led a cooperative Congress in the establishment of the administrative state. In the words of Mark Twain, the federal government “got started” on a new trail.

This “new trail” of the administrative state has led to thousands of pages of government regulations. Most of the new federal regulations have never been approved by Congress. The Congress has established new government agencies that have mostly written their own rules. Most of the new rules have never been approved by Congress.

The administrative state, otherwise know as “Leviathan,” has long since “started” us on a new trail. Our one-time freedom has been rerouted into enormous amounts of government control. Congress simply appropriates vast amounts of taxpayer money for the use of the administrative state. Using only vague guidelines, Leviathan makes its own rules, which have the force of law. Our freedoms have mostly been curtailed or even disappeared.

Last November, the voters of the United States decided to change direction and “start” to get ahead of Leviathan. Following Mark Twain’s advice, President Trump is starting to identify and control Leviathan (the administrative state).

Twenty-six years ago, my wife and I started a new trail. We were successful and very happy.

This year the U.S. President has started the nation on a new trail.

The Department of Government Efficiency is working hard to put us on the right trail. They have started the task. Many will resist, especially Leviathan. Our government must be brought under control.

I pray that DOGE is successful on our new trail.

Mike Lang, Member, Union County Republican Central Committee