November 4–11, 1999

books

The Bigger the Better

A former conservative argues for the importance of Big Government.

by Andrew Milner

A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government

By Garry Wills
Simon and Schuster, 365 p., $25

As libertarianism becomes more popular across the political spectrum, with even President Clinton declaring the end of Big Government, there’s nothing like a spirited defense of a strong central government to surprise today’s reader. Garry Wills, a William Buckley protégé turned liberal whose books have included a non-fiction biography of Ronald Reagan, an analysis of St. Augustine and an equally reverent look at John Wayne, has, with A Necessary Evil, written an engaging critique of anti-government sentiment throughout American history.

With relish, Wills debunks many long-held myths celebrating anti-government forces at the expense of Washington. Contrary to the beliefs of today’s militia supporters, Revolutionary-era militiamen did not defeat the British. As Wills documents, these militias served exclusively to supplement early police forces, while the Continental Army fought and won the war. And contrary to the contentions of the NRA, he writes that the overwhelming majority of colonials did not even own working firearms (quoting extensive probate research, Wills holds that "only 14 percent of the men owned guns, and 53 percent of those guns were broken or unusable"). This research undermines one of the core beliefs of Second Amendment supporters — that gun use in America was universal before the federal government was established.

Wills goes a step further in refuting the conservative canard, espoused by President Reagan, that "the federal government didn’t create the states; the states created the federal government." Wills maintains, by a thorough study of the Federalist Papers, that the creation of the Constitution made the 13 colonies part of a larger government, noting, "[t]he states did not sign thirteen different treaties with France for the waging of the war or thirteen different treaties with England for ending the war."

Analyzing the anti-government stances of such major American writers as Henry Adams, Thoreau and H.L. Mencken, Wills concludes that their detachment and often glib opposition to democratic politics was corrosive to public life. Where others simply regard Mencken as a politically incorrect gadfly, for example, Wills insists that The Sage of Baltimore’s political writings were genuinely racist, pro-Nietzsche and "anti-democratic… not the genial joshings of a satirist but expressions of a contempt for mass-man (whom he called ‘the booboisie’)."

The author is hardly naïve about the dangers of intrusive government: "[T]here is," he admits, "ample reason to fear and distrust government, to probe it, to make it come clean, demand access." While Wills holds it was necessary for the U.S. government to keep the Manhattan Project secret during World War II, he claims that similar secrecy afterwards was unwarranted and foolhardy. Nonetheless, Wills insists that successful social change throughout this country’s history has come not through seceding from government but from working within the system. He offers Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement as an example, contrasting King’s responsible civil disobedience (leading to landmark changes in federal and state law) with the more violent anti-war protestors who, in Wills’ opinion, only lengthened American involvement in Vietnam. "Dr. King had voiced his own patriotism in his 'I have a dream' speech, mingling the words of the old spirituals with the hymns of the nation. The New Left degenerated into expressions of support for Ho Chi Minh’s despotism and the burning of the American flag. Anti-governmentalism of that sort does not destroy government; it destroys itself."

A Necessary Evil concludes with Wills invoking Augustine and Hume to establish a basic appreciation for mutually agreed-upon laws governing us. Where, to cite but one example, many see the hundreds of motor vehicle laws as burdensome restrictions upon individual freedom, Wills contends that these rules actually free the driver: "If we all woke every morning, took out cars of uncertain performance, and tried to drive every which way, not heeding (nonexistent) signs or a right-side requirement, any speed laws or rules of precedence at crossings, we would either be crashing constantly, or would be immobilized by a fear of crashing or being crashed into. Because specialized activity has provided the roads and the rules as well as the vehicles, we speed on efficiently." Food for thought the next time you’re stuck on line at the DMV.