299 Days: The Visitors by Glen Tate Page B

start using the correct term, “Patriot” – just not out loud, as that would surely get her in trouble.
    What had happened to her in the past month or so? She was a “conservative.” She was one of the few of her kind who actually could get some positive things done in state government. Her boss, the State Auditor, was a “reformer” who was going to reverse the course of the state from corruption and spending to fairness and fiscal sanity. Then, when everyone told him he could be the next governor, he started to pull back on all that “reform” talk. He quickly began talking about “governing” and running the state more efficiently. Running the mammoth government. Better. Getting more done with the same resources. And getting “more done” meant more government.
    Well, her boss got his wish. It was widely known in Camp Murray, but not outside it, that the Governor had suffered a nervous breakdown and would resign soon. As the unofficial successor to the Governor, State Auditor Rick Menlow was now surrounded by guards, received top secret briefings, and held meetings where people came to beg him for food, fuel, medicine, and security. He would dispense life-saving supplies to the groveling visitors with the wave of a hand and have people kiss his hand. He had it made. What could be better for a politician?
    How did Menlow go from being the brash reformer to this? Incrementally, Jeanie realized. One little compromise after another. He agreed to an expansion of government power for a “good cause,” like helping some group that would result in votes for the Republicans. When the Republicans got enough votes, they assured themselves, they could start changing things. They couldn’t change things without the votes, so they needed to expand government, just temporarily, of course, to get the votes. Then they’d swing into action and…cut all that government they just expanded? If they got votes for expanding government, how could they keep those votes if they cut it? Who had thought this could work?
    The inherent inconsistency with this logic was that expanding government to get the votes meant that government was now bigger when you tried to use the power you won with those votes to then cut government. You grew the beast in order to have more power to slay the beast. Beasts didn’t work that way.
    The only way to limit the size of government was not to grow it in the first place. Once it grows, it can’t be trimmed back voluntarily. It would take some big, awful event to forcibly cut it back, which is what was going on outside the walls of Camp Murray.
    So, who believed that the vote-gathering method would work? Jeanie, that’s who. She was an extremely intelligent, young, energetic, and beautiful firebrand who was going to save the world. Now look at her. She was basically in a prison where her job was to lie to people all day.
    She was losing sleep wondering how the country would get out of this mess. The answer scared her. Reset. Starting over. Scrapping the old system entirely and replacing it with something that would work. The new system that would work was already written up. It was called the Constitution.
    The federal Constitution was great, but Washington State’s was even better. Jeanie remembered seeing a copy of the state Constitution Bill of Rights posted at Camp Murray, of all places. The first section of it said: “All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.” There it was, right there. All you needed was for people to carry those words out.
    That meant people would actually want to have limited government and that desire had long since passed in America. Generation after generation wanted more from government, and each generation worked a little less. Classroom after classroom of kids were taught that the community takes care of you and that those