Remember when the federal government launched Obama Care, or tried to? Among many other problems, the whole thing got messed up at the start because the website didn’t work.

The federal government has trillions of dollars to spend, but it couldn’t find a web developer that understood the challenges of having millions of people sign up online for health insurance. Or could it be that this is an idiotic way to have people get their health insurance, and the whole idea of managing it through a website was garbage to begin with?

I thought about that as we watched Monday night’s Democratic Iowa caucuses turn into an utter disaster. The app local leaders were supposed to use to report results didn’t work – apparently not having been properly tested – and when people tried to resort to calling a hotline, they ended up waiting on hold for an hour or more.

The common theme is this: Democrats constantly assail free markets and claim that if they were put in charge of running things, they would be smarter and fairer in how they did so. They claim they would go out and find the “best minds” to put in charge and would use the power of government to make sure everything is the way it’s supposed to be.

But here’s the problem: Democrats are better at obtaining power than they are at using it. The caucuses are a perfect example. These things have been held in Iowa for many decades, and there was never a problem reporting the results before Monday night. But someone got just a little too clever and thought they could show their brilliance by imposing a system that hadn’t been tested and couldn’t be shown to be better than the old way.

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No matter. The best minds! Surely they knew what they were doing.

They didn’t, and the result was an embarrassing debacle from which the Democrats will not soon recover.

This is the problem when you centralize power and authority rather than leaving it in the hands of free-market actors and private individuals. In the free market, people make mistakes all the time. But the mistakes of some people are then addressed by others also participating in the free market, and eventually those who make too many mistakes lose opportunities to those who perform better. Sometimes people who make a lot of mistakes lose their role and have to accept a different one, but ultimately most people end up where they belong and the market keeps humming along as a result.

It doesn’t work that way when you centralize power in the form of a government monopoly. Whether it’s a website that doesn’t work, an app that isn’t tested correctly or an economic theory that doesn’t make sense, we all find ourselves having to live with the consequences of “best minds” who aren’t as smart as they want us to think they were.

Now some Democrats want to take over not only what’s left of the private health care market but also electrical production. In addition, they want to impose new regulations on everyone from banks to manufacturers to retailers about how to conduct business.

And yet when given the chance to perform themselves, they have far too often shown themselves to be without a clue.

As most of you know, I came up through the corporate ranks – spending time with corporations like Pillsbury, Burger King and Godfather’s Pizza. I also have served on the boards of organizations like Whirlpool and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Everywhere I went, the same thing was true: Those who didn’t perform didn’t last long. Private companies can’t just print their own money, nor can they borrow endlessly without having to pay back the debts – like the federal government does. So private companies have to produce results. They’re in trouble if they don’t.

Putting the federal government in charge of anything more than it’s already in charge of means one more segment of the economy that’s run by people who are accountable to politics rather than to performance. The people who couldn’t launch a website correctly to run health care, and couldn’t deploy an app correctly to run simple caucuses, can’t run your life or the nation’s industries any better than we can run them ourselves. They are usually the least talented and least qualified, but most impressed by their own perceived intelligence.

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There’s a reason the government that governs least governs best. Government doesn’t really attract the best and brightest people because the rewards for being that bright are found in the private sector. Government attracts the kind of people who dropped the ball on Monday night in Iowa.

This is one of the reasons Donald Trump has gotten good results as president. He came from the sector that demands results and always has, and he understood the pressure that was on him to perform. But even more important, he knew what strong performance looked like and he knew how to achieve it.

I don’t think the crowd who fumbled the Iowa caucuses can say the same, so maybe we shouldn’t be given them any more responsibility than they already have.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

President Trump’s SOTU speech Tuesday night was spectacular on every level. It was unabashedly pro-American, pro-law-enforcement, pro-border security, pro-religious freedom, pro-life, pro-school choice and pro-the American job and economic comeback, and then some; there was so much more, all of it positive, optimistic.  This president has indeed begun to make America great again. 

Despite the Democrats’ fervent attempts to see him removed from office, President Trump has succeeded beyond all expectations for the good of the nation.  This is what so enrages the left; the man has done in three years what they have promised their voters for sixty-plus years but never accomplished — on purpose.  The left has always promised what they never intended to deliver. Their plan for decades has been to keep us all down, begging them, the federal government, for sustenance.  Their plan has always been to convince us we cannot thrive without their intervention in our lives and by intervention, they mean they will tell us how to live, breathe, eat, drive, work, etc.  Our left is authoritarian, fascist.  

And they are also as ungracious as any group of people who have ever held office in America. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yet again embarrassed herself.  This is a woman without an iota of grace or class.  She has been determined to see President Trump unseated since the day he won the election.  She is the wicked witch of the House; all-powerful but losing her grip on her caucus and her sanity; she is melting.  She sat grim-faced, working her mouth in odd ways as always, trying to distract from the content of the speech by shuffling papers to make the point that she was not listening.  She was purposefully rude. Her behavior should be mortifying to her colleagues but they all behaved in like manner.

As the president listed the many successes of his administration so far, the Democrats sat on their hands, refusing to applaud nearly all of the terrific things that have taken place these past three years.  They made a point of appearing dismissive of the man and his words.  They are very angry that it has been a non-ideological Republican who has achieved so much for so many, doing things Democrats have always promised but never fulfilled, stealing their thunder.  

Trump’s economic policies have brought all demographic groups more jobs and higher wages.  No wonder his approval among African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women, and youth has grown.  They are all better off since he was elected.  He has elicited more money for NATO, passed USMCA and begun to even up trade with China, his initial reason for running for the office of president.

The most egregiously infuriating aspect of the night was the persistent despicable behavior of the Democrats who were in the room.  They acted like small children, infantilized by their hatred of this president and their belief that Americans must be taken care of according to their specifications.  They demeaned themselves with their pathetic behavior at an event like this SOTU speech by refusing to acknowledge any of this president’s  victories.  A few of the usual suspects  walked out during the speech, a feeble attempt to demonstrate their contempt.  They are obviously both angry and embarrassed that their misguided attempt to impeach the president failed.  But they should take their rage out on Reps. Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and Pelosi who truly failed them, not the president.  All those Democrats who sat by and watched the Schiff show systematically destroy their own party are to blame for their own demise.   

Trump will be re-elected in a landslide, with black, Hispanic, gay, and former Democrats in support.  He actually is making America great again.  And for that, the Democrats sat stone-faced, furious, throughout the speech.  They made one thing manifestly clear:  They are anti-American, anti-self-reliance, pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration, pro-sanctuary cites for illegal criminals, anti-Second Amendment and anti-American people.

Americans have just endured three years of the Democrats’ inability to accept the results of the 2016 election and the torment of the costly and phony Russia hoax as well as the Mueller investigation, which was in fact a cover-up scheme.  Then Schiff brought us the long-planned Ukraine nonsense.  We have all watched Schiff’s descent into madness; he is in need of a rubber room with his final ravings, and yet his colleagues still refrain from stopping him from making an ever bigger fool of himself.  They have remained silent as he has made their party a laughingstock.  Not a single Democrat has had the courage to shout that this wanna-be emperor has no clothes.   Schiff’s obsession with removing Trump from office is clearly a sign of his mental instability.  Trump is going to sell Alaska to Russia!  Bring on the straitjacket and an incapacitating agent.

When the president’s speech was over, Pelosi furiously ripped up her copy of it on camera.  

Is there a better, more telling act of her anger and disrespect for the office of the presidency?  She is a harridan, a blight upon her city, her party and the country.  The American Democrat party has become something it was never meant to be: it has morphed into a radically fascist party of autocrats.  Certainly not all of them fall into this category but those who do not are cowards.  Clearly they are afraid of the tyrants who control the party so they sit quietly by in fear of losing their seats.   As we watched them all refuse to applaud the many successes of this administration and the members of the audience Trump celebrated, we should all realize that these people are not on the side of America or Americans.  As Pelosi so ungraciously ripped up her copy of the speech on camera, she proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Democrat party is no longer pro-American, pro-freedom nor pro-democracy.  This SOTU speech was a transformative moment.  Now we know that only one party represents the American people.  The Democrat party as currently constituted, should ship out to Venezuela where they would feel right at home.  

Image credit: YouTube screen grab

President Trump’s SOTU speech Tuesday night was spectacular on every level. It was unabashedly pro-American, pro-law-enforcement, pro-border security, pro-religious freedom, pro-life, pro-school choice and pro-the American job and economic comeback, and then some; there was so much more, all of it positive, optimistic.  This president has indeed begun to make America great again. 

Despite the Democrats’ fervent attempts to see him removed from office, President Trump has succeeded beyond all expectations for the good of the nation.  This is what so enrages the left; the man has done in three years what they have promised their voters for sixty-plus years but never accomplished — on purpose.  The left has always promised what they never intended to deliver. Their plan for decades has been to keep us all down, begging them, the federal government, for sustenance.  Their plan has always been to convince us we cannot thrive without their intervention in our lives and by intervention, they mean they will tell us how to live, breathe, eat, drive, work, etc.  Our left is authoritarian, fascist.  

And they are also as ungracious as any group of people who have ever held office in America. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yet again embarrassed herself.  This is a woman without an iota of grace or class.  She has been determined to see President Trump unseated since the day he won the election.  She is the wicked witch of the House; all-powerful but losing her grip on her caucus and her sanity; she is melting.  She sat grim-faced, working her mouth in odd ways as always, trying to distract from the content of the speech by shuffling papers to make the point that she was not listening.  She was purposefully rude. Her behavior should be mortifying to her colleagues but they all behaved in like manner.

As the president listed the many successes of his administration so far, the Democrats sat on their hands, refusing to applaud nearly all of the terrific things that have taken place these past three years.  They made a point of appearing dismissive of the man and his words.  They are very angry that it has been a non-ideological Republican who has achieved so much for so many, doing things Democrats have always promised but never fulfilled, stealing their thunder.  

Trump’s economic policies have brought all demographic groups more jobs and higher wages.  No wonder his approval among African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women, and youth has grown.  They are all better off since he was elected.  He has elicited more money for NATO, passed USMCA and begun to even up trade with China, his initial reason for running for the office of president.

The most egregiously infuriating aspect of the night was the persistent despicable behavior of the Democrats who were in the room.  They acted like small children, infantilized by their hatred of this president and their belief that Americans must be taken care of according to their specifications.  They demeaned themselves with their pathetic behavior at an event like this SOTU speech by refusing to acknowledge any of this president’s  victories.  A few of the usual suspects  walked out during the speech, a feeble attempt to demonstrate their contempt.  They are obviously both angry and embarrassed that their misguided attempt to impeach the president failed.  But they should take their rage out on Reps. Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and Pelosi who truly failed them, not the president.  All those Democrats who sat by and watched the Schiff show systematically destroy their own party are to blame for their own demise.   

Trump will be re-elected in a landslide, with black, Hispanic, gay, and former Democrats in support.  He actually is making America great again.  And for that, the Democrats sat stone-faced, furious, throughout the speech.  They made one thing manifestly clear:  They are anti-American, anti-self-reliance, pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration, pro-sanctuary cites for illegal criminals, anti-Second Amendment and anti-American people.

Americans have just endured three years of the Democrats’ inability to accept the results of the 2016 election and the torment of the costly and phony Russia hoax as well as the Mueller investigation, which was in fact a cover-up scheme.  Then Schiff brought us the long-planned Ukraine nonsense.  We have all watched Schiff’s descent into madness; he is in need of a rubber room with his final ravings, and yet his colleagues still refrain from stopping him from making an ever bigger fool of himself.  They have remained silent as he has made their party a laughingstock.  Not a single Democrat has had the courage to shout that this wanna-be emperor has no clothes.   Schiff’s obsession with removing Trump from office is clearly a sign of his mental instability.  Trump is going to sell Alaska to Russia!  Bring on the straitjacket and an incapacitating agent.

When the president’s speech was over, Pelosi furiously ripped up her copy of it on camera.  

Is there a better, more telling act of her anger and disrespect for the office of the presidency?  She is a harridan, a blight upon her city, her party and the country.  The American Democrat party has become something it was never meant to be: it has morphed into a radically fascist party of autocrats.  Certainly not all of them fall into this category but those who do not are cowards.  Clearly they are afraid of the tyrants who control the party so they sit quietly by in fear of losing their seats.   As we watched them all refuse to applaud the many successes of this administration and the members of the audience Trump celebrated, we should all realize that these people are not on the side of America or Americans.  As Pelosi so ungraciously ripped up her copy of the speech on camera, she proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Democrat party is no longer pro-American, pro-freedom nor pro-democracy.  This SOTU speech was a transformative moment.  Now we know that only one party represents the American people.  The Democrat party as currently constituted, should ship out to Venezuela where they would feel right at home.  

Image credit: YouTube screen grab