Lawrence B. Lindsey - Conspiracies of the ruling class: how to break their grip forever

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ISBN 978-1-5011-4423-3

ISBN 978-1-5011-4425-7 (ebook)

To Christine,

Who by reminding me that all Gifts involve a Purpose

Made this book, and much else, possible

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Thomas Paine,
The American Crisis ,
December 1776

T he American public is angry. They feel the government has become too intrusive, that government has positioned itself as a true nanny state and has tried to make itself the source of everything people need, from food, to housing, to health care, to education, to happiness. They feel that government is taking more and moremore resources, more freedom, and more powerand has strayed from how it can best serve them. Public services are misplaced and ineffective. The country is in retreat in the world arena. Those in power seem to see government as a vehicle for themselves: an opportunity to make a personal mark in history and not as a means of helping Americans lead better lives and pursue their dreams.

The public is right to feel this way. We have been badly governed, particularly in the last quarter century, and the trend is one that is spiraling downward at an accelerating rate. This government has been expanding exponentially and has become bloated, unaccountable, out of touch, and replete with fraud, waste, and abuse.

My father used to tell me that when I pointed a finger at someone else, I was pointing three fingers back at me. So let me be up front as I point a finger at what I call the Ruling Class. I was part of the government that hasnt governed well. I served in policy positions in the White House under three presidents. I was a governor of the US Federal Reserve. I was even a professor at Harvard University, which often functions as a government in waiting. So its hard for me to pretend that I am some powerless victim who has no responsibility for whats happened.

I did serve in government. And while I like to think that most of what I did there was well intentioned and produced some good results, I also saw plenty of things that werent going as they should. I recognize that I was part of the problem.

Ive also interspersed my three stints of government service with one stint in academiareflecting on that serviceand two in business: as managing director of one company and as the CEO of my own firm. Seeing it from the outside as well as the inside has given me a perspective on government that most people dont haveas well as new ideas for finding solutions.

When I was in government, it sure didnt seem like I was part of a Ruling Class. Most of the people I worked within both partiesviewed themselves as serving in government for only part of their lives and certainly not as their lifes work. When one views oneself that way, youre hardly thinking the way a ruler would, and you certainly dont think of yourself as part of a permanent Ruling Class. We were there to get the job done and move on.

But there was always a core group of people who saw things differently: the experts in bureaucratic politics. They took pleasure in winning battles, not in creating a plan that would lead to an effective and efficient outcome. Saddest of all, they came to see themselves as naturals eminently qualified to be in charge: people who were good at fighting and winning political battles and beating enemies into submission. Serving in government was not the means to an end to create a better country but an end in itself. The purpose of their government service was to accumulate personal power and to exercise that power over others. They didnt have a noble cause, even though they always acted as though they did, but a hidden need to wield power and maintain control of their little domain.

You can tell who they are just from watching TV. They enjoy ridiculing their opponents. They tell you how smart they are whenever possible. Some of them like to belittle other people, setting them up as straw men just to knock them down. I will leave it to you to figure out what this says about them psychologically. Sometimes their personality is so Ruling Class that you dont even need to watch with the sound on to tell who they are. Just watch their body language: the way they hold their head, or the thrust of their jaw. They just know they are superior to you, though they may try to hide it by telling you how they are there to help you, as if you needed their help to run your own life.

I never took these people too seriously until they stopped being content with their own tiny fiefdoms and started turning their attention to the nation and people like me. Back in July 2012, President Barack Obama said, If youve got a businessyou didnt build that. Well, I did build a business. Senator Elizabeth Warren said, There is nobody in this country who got rich on his ownnobody. Really? And back in October 2014, as she was unofficially kicking off her presidential campaign, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said, Dont let anybody tell you its corporations and businesses that create jobs. Who did, then, the government? Personally, Ive hired the people who work for me, and my efforts created those jobs, not the government.

This is not an isolated attitude, but quite widespread among those who now run Washington. These are politicians, appointees, and bureaucrats who had spent their lives ensconced in government or at institutions such as Harvard waiting for their chance to assume a position of political power. This is a class of like-minded people with similar backgrounds and rsums with a classic rulers attitude: You couldnt accomplish that on your own. You needed me to do the hard work because I am smarter and better educated than you.