Dark Horses

For those brought up on civics-book descriptions of government in action, the way it really operates is an astonishment.

The chief delusion from which most of us suffer is the idea that we have a government “of the people,” and that elected policy-makers in the capital are hard at work to solve the nation’s problems in keeping with the aspirations of the public. The reality could hardly be more different. In fact, today we have a government of, by, and for unelected bureaucrats, interest groups, and ideological lobbies who know how to work the federal machinery. What “the people” think or want is the last thing that occurs to anyone—and then primarily as a nuisance.