If you don't like government, Somalia's for you

Leader Telegraph Monday, April 13, 2009 The issue: Some Americans worry that government intervention in the economy is turning us into an authoritarian nation and wish we had a weaker central government. Our view: The Somali pirate problem shows what can happen when government is ineffective. The conclusion that the federal government's recently expanded involvement in the economy - bailing out banks, pumping money into car companies, and the like - is excessive has led some people to declare that our nation is tripping toward socialism, communism, fascism, or maybe all three at once. And even some of those who realize it's likely a different "ism" is at work - namely "liberalism," a more common and electorally successful strain of American politics - are concerned that our government is getting too big for its britches. They fear that government has intruded too far into the private sector and threatens to take away our freedoms. "That government is best which governs least," is one of their favorite aphorisms, along with the more bumper-sticker friendly motto, "There's no government like no government." It's true that we always should be on guard to protect our nation from tyranny, whether it comes from within or without. However, just because having an all-powerful government is a bad thing doesn't mean that the opposite - having no government at all - is a good thing. Utopian notions aside, anarchy is simply another form of tyranny. Those who think otherwise need only turn to recent headlines about Somalia, which, as the online CIA World Factbook bluntly points out, has "no permanent national government." That fact, plus the lawless nation's location next to a busy shipping lane, has made it a breeding ground for pirates like those who last week seized an American cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, before being repelled by sailors. According to the International Maritime Bureau, there have been 25 ship attacks, including seven hijackings, off the Somali coast since March 1. And the United Nations reports that some of the pirates are likely aligned with the rulers of Puntland, one of the many regions of the country outside central government control. In a November article, Time magazine reporter Alex Perry summed up the nation's condition this way: "Somalia is not so much a failed state as a didn't-even-try one. It hasn't had a government since 1991, when warlords took over and embarked on a series of intractable clan wars that have produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises: hundreds of thousands dead and 3 million people desperately in need of aid." Will reducing government involvement in our lives and finances inevitably lead to a Somalia-style mess in the United States? Of course not. But neither will an increase in government involvement lead to a fascist dictatorship. Those under the delusion that we're on the brink of the latter extreme ought to take comfort in the fact that we're still a robust democracy - and that the next elections are just 20 months away. - Tom Giffey, editorial page editor