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… is from George Will’s new column titled “A second pandemic: Virus opportunism [2]“; its focus is on that banana-republic practice called “civil asset forfeiture”:
Virus opportunists who today are vociferously regretting Americans’ skepticism about government ought to regret that government supplies so many reasons for it.
DBx: So very true.
The hyperactivity of government on so many fronts on which it has no business acting causes whatever actions that it might legitimately take during a public-health crisis to be less effective. Of course, government’s hyperactivity and incontinent expansion dilute its focus, both fiscally and operationally. But this hyperactivity and incontinent expansion also create constituencies whose particular, narrow interests government must continue to serve even though doing so weakens government’s ability to address the crisis.