4-28-25

There’s a lot of talk right now about the rightsizing of government…..about

bringing big government into a place of greater efficiency…..making government

leaner and more responsive and certainly more responsible…..DOGE is on the

march, cutting waste, excising cancerous spending, and generally showing us how

much government has enjoyed the benefits of our hard earned tax dollars…..it’s

galling…..at the same time we are also watching with a bit of morbid fascination

as the Trump tariffs are wrecking the globalists view of world commerce by

forcing productivity back into the US private sector on US soil….at this point,

those who want to make, sell, or buy US goods have a distinct choice….they can

offshore the jobs, outsource the productivity and pay more and make less….or they

can view this as an opportunity to invest in America, and American workers, and

American ingenuity…..and then there’s the stories of government just flat out

getting in the way…..like Camping World, a major RV retailer, who just shut

down their operations altogether in one North Carolina city because city officials

refused to let them fly a large American flag……or Saks 5 th Avenue in San

Francisco, which is shutting down its brick and mortar store which has been in

downtown for nearly 5 decades because city officials will not curb crime and

violence around its doors……

Whether it be your tax dollars wasted, or production capability sent overseas, or

stifling regulations, or soft-on-crime policies, the government has a unique skillset

that it too often uses to crush the private sector….and truthfully, the private sector

of our economy is actually what keeps government going…..you would think that

the leftists who want more of your time, energy and money would realize that the

government is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs when it gets too much in

the way of the private sector doing what it does best…..

Having said that, I’ve got to tell you about some of the most epic examples of the

private sector doing what it does best…overcoming obstacles with private

investment, sweat equity, true grit, and good old American know-how….the story

I’m going to tell you comes from the days of the Alaskan gold rush….in 1896 gold

was discovered in Bonanza Creek near Dawson, which was roughly 50 miles into

the Canadian Yukon territory…..the best way to get there was through

Alaska…..thousands upon thousands of men and women saw riches in their dreams

and gave up everything to become known as “stampeders”….rushing into the

wilderness to find gold…..but the gold fields were in some of the most rugged

terrain known to man and the best way to get there….the only way to get

there….was through a frozen mankiller called the Chilkoot Pass…..the Chilkoot

Trail was roughly 30 miles long….Stampeders stormed into Skagway Harbor in

Southeast Alaska and began making their way overland….the route was considered

too treacherous for wagons, too tough for horses and mules…..in some places,

when the snow melted men had to crawl uphill on hands and knees over talus rock

and giant boulders…..the Canadian Government mandates that every man had to

have at least 1500 pounds of supplies to better guarantee they wouldn’t die in the

wilderness….this meant that men had to make the trek back and forth multiple

times….and the last part of that trek was the Chilkoot Pass…..roughly 1 mile high

of pitched climbing while wearing a hundred pounds of gear and supplies….once

you made it to the top you still had to build your own boat and be prepared to sail

up the high mountain Yukon River to the gold fields….it was not for the faint of

heart…..gear and supplies and bodes littered the trail and can still be found to the is

day…..but the private sector always finds a way to increase productivity…..one

group of entrepreneurs decided to cut stairs into the mountain pass….they did, they

cut over 1500 steps in the snow and ice, and then of course they charged people to

use them….and they made good money by not even getting to the gold fields

themselves….they called it the golden staircase and a lot of men and supplies

climbed those stairs and the private sector made money off of all of them…..and

then there was A. J. Goddard from Seattle….he heard that the gold rush required

boats….because once you got your 1500 pounds of supplies up the mountain pass

you still had to get it all down river and everyone was scratch building homemade

rafts and sailboats….but A. J. Goddard was the ultimate entrepreneur….he saw a

way that no one else saw….he ordered two small paddlewheel steam boats built

and then disassembled….he shipped the parts, including the boilers, to Skagway

and paid to have it all hauled up through the pass on men’s backs….trip after trip

his two boats made it up in pieces and workers spent weeks reassembling them by

hand….and they made it work….his two paddlewheelers plowed the waters back

and forth carrying men and supplies over mountain rapids and lakes….Goddard

made good money and two years later he returned to Seattle and served in the State

legislature….it’s amazing what the private sector can do when the government gets

out of the way….

Conservative commentator Dennis Prager says that the bigger the

government….the smaller the citizen….he’s not wrong……the founders intended

for the a govt to provide for the common defense, to establish the rule of law, to

ensure that life, limb and property are protected…..There are some things that

govt’s are designed for….like fighting our nations wars, establishing trade with

foreign nations, protecting the vulnerable by means of police and fire departments,

ensuring equal justice, enacting the laws through representative bodies of elected

citizens…..

But I also believe that the value of the private citizen….the private effort….is what

makes this country so great……When govt is the first resort to take care of our

basic daily needs…..bad things happen….More and more govt means more and

more regulation…..stifling regulation…… As government grows it must justify its

existence and prove to the world that life cannot exist without it…..

And for those who still try to produce….to thrive….or to create….the government

too often believes it must have more from you….while also creating more

regulations to tell you how, when and where you will provide for the govt so that

the govt can give to those entitled individuals who have chosen the govt as their

first resort…..

I don’t want the US to be a mediocre country…. We should never desire to be a

nation of low level producers who reach out to govt for the next stimulus check,

the next handout, the next excuse why they don’t have to go to work…..a nation

where productivity is stymied by so many regulations that folks just give up

trying….where taxation becomes so onerous that people choose not to produce just

to avoid govt reaching into their wallets again…..and in that vein, I don’t want a

government that is so big and so entitled with its own existence that the people that

work in our government don’t feel the need to justify their existence by answering

a simple email that says, “hey boss, here’s what I did last week”…..only self-

entitled bureaucrats would find that offensive…..

But really, if we get to the point that people cannot exist without the

government….it will only be because we have forgotten that government actually

cannot survive without the people….then we are just like that proverbial self-

licking ice cream cone….just existing for the never ending loop of mediocrity

…..living off what the government gives us while in turn feeding an ever-growing

government.

Govt should exist solely to ensure that liberty survives…..to free-up the private

citizen to build the better mousetrap….to set the parameters for national

growth…..to make options available …..not mandates….. Liberal progressives

believe that the American spirit is a myth…that government knows best….that you

exist for the benefit of government and not the other way around….liberal

progressives believe govt should always be the first resort when you face a

personal hardship…..not your family, your church, your community, and certainly

not your own self-determination……

For the past few years we have lived under more government regulation and

interaction with our personal lives than perhaps ever in the history of our nation…..

But like so many of you listening…..I am a conservative….so I believe in limited

government….. limited government that allows freedom of movement….one that

sets the stage for success….and then steps back and applauds when the private

sector knocks another home run out of the park……

I believe in the satisfaction that comes from enduring….from creating….from

achieving….from trying, failing, trying again, and succeeding through effort, real

effort, not big government entitlements or stifling regulations.

So in reality….if government wants to survive, then the private sector must

thrive…..it’s amazing what can happen when government gets out of the way….

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way……