From a commenter at Belmont Club » The Empty Sandwich:
"Over the past 20 years the special interest coalitions have progressively discredited the traditional idea that factions were a bad thing. That is now a quaint idea superseded by the notion that there is nothing special interest lobbying cannot solve. A compliant media has convinced the public that to every problem there is an agency and a rule for every purpose under heaven.
The media has learned to craft “compassion trap” stories in which heart-rending problems can be fixed by yet another government bureaucracy whose creation only the cruel could refuse to fund. A powerful coalition of the media and special interests has written the narrative of modern times. Together they have created a “ratchet” and the wheel winds only one way.
In consequence, learning how to manipulate the system became the key modern skill. Governance became a one sided contest between the part-time public and professional activists, who wanted to work the system to rule others and made it their full-time occupation. As the saying goes, “be at the table or be on the menu”. The consequence is that almost everyone who actually does something productive is on the menu for those who do nothing but redistribute the wealth."
