There’s a simple rule that explains a lot about modern politics: when someone depends on you, you have power over them. Now that’s normal in a family. A child depends on parents, and that relationship is healthy. But when adults become dependent on the state, something changes. The government starts acting like a parent, and citizens start acting like children.
Once you look at changes in our American society through that lens, a lot of things suddenly make sense. In a wealthy country, politicians aren’t really competing over ideas. They’re competing over dependents. People who rely on government programs are far less likely to vote against the people who provide them. So the safest political strategy isn’t persuasion – it’s dependency. If every vote counts the same, what’s easier to sell? “Work hard, sacrifice, think long-term”? Or, “Vote for me and I’ll give you something”? In our nation today, it feels like the second one wins every time.
Over decades, this creates a predictable pattern. Government grows, spending expands, transfer payments multiply, and it doesn’t matter much who’s in office. The machine keeps moving in the same direction because dependency is a winning electoral strategy. That’s why so many policy failures never truly disappear. Rent controls, price caps, endless subsidies. They don’t work in practice, but they work politically. They sound fair and they “feel” moral. And, most importantly, they promise relief now. However, when these programs inevitably fail, politicians don’t admit the mistake. They say the solution just wasn’t big enough, then they promise more.
This isn’t ineptitude, it’s incentive. From Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society all the way to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, this blatant buying of votes with has made a mess of our political system. What’s worse is even conservatives struggle to stop it. No matter the letter behind candidate’s or office holder’s name, these programs drag on or even grow bigger. Why? Because no matter how many voters talk about fiscal responsibility, cutting benefits ends up being political suicide. So, politicians borrow instead.
It is certainly true that the political left wants the state to become all-consuming, but the sad reality often is that no matter the politician’s party, the state doesn’t shrink because shrinking it loses elections.
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