Putting the pro in pro-government.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Democratic Party, Republican Party - Brief article

During my lifetime, Republicans have been the anti-government party and Democrats the pro-government party. Mostly that's put the Democrats on the right side. We need government to do lots of things, from controlling air traffic to protecting us against disease. The Republican attitude cost them in the case of Katrina, when their indifference to the quality of the people they hired led to a major embarrassment.

It seems to me, however, that the Democrats are also in danger. Their automatic pro-government attitude has brought them powerful allies in the government employees and teachers unions--now the strongest force in the labor movement. But these allies come at a price. They make Democrats reluctant to take on the need to improve government and reform public education, especially when these efforts involve dismissing incompetent teachers and civil servants.

The truth is that much of government cries out...