Football and government
The federal government could learn a lot from professional football – teams competing with each other, each team doing all it can to win, referees ensuring they follow the rules, together part of a league whose owners have the final say on the rules and how the league works.
Our league is the United States of America and the teams are our free market system, individuals and companies competing with one another, doing all they can to win. The referees are our elected officials, there to ensure the competitors follow the rules. The head referee is our Supreme Court, appointed to maintain the integrity of the rulebook when questions arise. The rulebook is the United States Constitution.
And, “We the people” are the league owners, the only ones who can approve changes to the rulebook and the ones hiring the referees, including our president and Congress.
Although it would be ideal if the teams voluntarily followed the rules, human nature being what it is, disputes arise, rules are challenged and referees are needed. Imagine what would happen if the NFL’s referees failed to do their job, if they acted like our league referees? What would happen if they twisted the rules? What would happen if they accepted money from the teams they are supposed to regulate? What would happen if they interfered with the coaching or play of the game? What would happen if they had their own team in the league they regulate? What would happen if they coerced a team to bend the rules just to please a few of the owners or other referees?
Does that sound frighteningly familiar, frighteningly like how our league referees act? Maybe the president, the Senate and the House of Representatives should attend football officials school. Maybe they need to learn how to do their job, and more important, what the rulebook does not allow them to do.
The president and Congress, rather than enforcing the rules, interfere with the coaching and play of the game. Moreover, our head referee, the Supreme Court, “interprets” the rulebook, deciding for us what is best and usurping powers from the league owners, us. The court believes it should decide if the rulebook is correct, if it is up to date, if it has evolved with the game, and the like.
Further, unlike football referees who refer questions about the rules to the owners, our Supreme Court sees no need to do that. Instead, it just “fills in the blanks” with rulings called precedent, meaning new law and potentially a forever-altered rulebook.
Our rulebook, the United States Constitution, states that “We the people” are the league owners. It states that the referees work for us, not us for them. It states that only the league owners can change the rulebook. It states that the head referee and other referees are there to enforce the rulebook, not interpret it.
Wouldn’t it be nice if our elected government officials understood what their jobs are? Wouldn’t it be nice if the head referee, the Supreme Court, understood its job is to maintain the integrity of the rulebook? Wouldn’t it be nice if the government understood that it works for the league owners – “We the people?”
Wouldn’t it be nice if the government referees limited their involvement with the free markets to ensuring that the teams in the game, whether individuals, banks, Wall Street or corporations, followed the rules and played fair? Wouldn’t it be nice if the government referees only stepped in when rules are broken rather than inserting themselves into the game, interfering with coaches and players? Wouldn’t it be nice if the government referees could simply read and follow the rulebook?
Maybe we do need a referee school for elected officials. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
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