I read a report this week (Gallup) that two out of every three of us believe our greatest concerns are for our government that has grown too big, too intrusive, too costly and is too demanding of us. The percentages are important to the conduct and outcome of this election.
Political significance related thereto resonated in the responses of the two leading Republican candidates for the presidency following Tuesday's contest in Florida.
Gingrich, recoiling from a substantial loss to Romney, threatened a frontal attack on everything he finds wrong with the present administration's initiatives in the first 24 hours, should he be elected president.
Romney, who won comfortably and was enjoying it, centered on what he would do to reverse the course taken by Obama for universal health care, but his upward thrust would be to regenerate the economy.
Their positions will set the course for the contest with President Obama. Prolonged high unemployment, coupled with the increased cost of living, is certain to be foremost in the contest ahead.
Small wonder the tone and substance of the seemingly unending Republican debates.
Small wonder, either, the recent Congressional initiatives and those of Obama to reduce the number of federal employees and the reduction of our armed forces.
The short of it is that we can't expand government services without having to accept what follows by way of regulatory demands and expense. Nor can we live separate and apart from the tangled strife of the Middle East or the economic paralysis of euro-based nations.
The costs and complexities of the federal government are central to the ongoing Republican primary debates and will be to what follows.
For those interested in the numbers relating to government employees, there is a website, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, titled "Total Government Employment Since 1962'' that covers all the years to 2010, the most recent available.
There are four categories: Executive Branch-Civilians, Uniformed Military Personnel, Legislative and Judicial Branch Personnel and Total Federal Personnel.
The numbers in all but those in the Legislative and Judicial Branch vary with the realities of the times, but those in that branch are progressively upward until 1976, when they began to increase what had been more or less stable numbers throughout the years until 1991 to 2010.
For much of 2011, and still in contention, there is a House bill that would curb federal hiring, even though there is a presidential initiative to reduce the numbers of federal employees.
There is a wall of ignorance between the governed — ourselves — and those who would govern. Public debates, however engrossing they may be, shed more light on the candidates than they do on the issues addressed by them.
So, at such times as we are now engaged, we depend on the shorthand of pollsters to light the way, and exit polls and televised talking heads from both parties to guide us through the political landscapes as seen through their biased prisms.
All of that, it would seem, has to do with the results of the Gallup report that two out of every three of us believes our government to be our biggest threat. That's shocking, and if that is indeed the case, ridding ourselves of it cannot be the work of only a president or of only one party.
• • •
Bill Plante is former executive editor of Essex County Newspapers. His email address is plantejr@comcast.net.
Child locked in washing machine after father put him there
Tiger's Ex-Wife Bares Her Bod
Raw Video: Man Saved After Niagara Falls Plunge
"House" Says Farewell After 8 Seasons
Swingers: Hooking Up With Strangers
'Part of Me' Details 'Bumpy' Marriage, Says Katy
Raw Video: Private Rocket Blasts Off
Donald Driver Goes Country
'Too Hot' to work
Bar Takes It Off For Maxim
4 Arrested After Man's Beating at Dodger Stadium
Kardashian Sisters Pose in Lingerie
Man ties himself to trees to get anonymous sex
Raw Video: Dramatic 270-Foot Waterfall Rescue
Gosselin Wants New Reality Show
Manning on Target at First Practice
Best of 2012 Billboard Music Awards
Wedding photos interrupted by protest march
Michael Jackson's lost concert footage
Kelly Clarkson Flaunts Figure
