Many American conservatives, Republicans and conservative-leaning independents will say eagerly that they favor “smaller government.” This view of our government is simplistic at best, and only serves to shift blame towards an ill-defined group of citizens collectively known as “the government.”

Such a view generally states something along these lines: It would be in the best interest of our country to have a government that had fewer employees, fewer responsibilities, and generally left the people of the United States alone to do what they want because government is not a perfect solution.

There are dozens of scandals, misguided government expenditures and programs that can attest to the idea that our government is not perfect. Indeed, our government suffers from the exact ailment that has stricken every member of the human race; it has faults.

The fact that a group of individuals who each have their own personal faults will at some point in time make mistakes of its own should not be news to anyone. However, scandals of inappropriate behavior, abuse of powers or corruption of various sorts seem to continually be met with claims of incredulity, shortly followed by riffs that government has gotten too large and will soon be uncontrollable.

Problems with our government are not evidence that we should make a smaller government. They are evidence that we should make a better government.

There is also a problem with perpetually desiring less of something: At some point, there is not going to be anything left. Such an idea may get tea party groups salivating, but as any American history buff can tell you, the anti-federalists, who opposed a large, dominant federal government, were defeated soundly with the ratification of our Constitution.

I would contend that the country founded in that Constitution is better served by appropriate government and appropriate spending, not by “big government” or “less spending.”

It occurs to me that there does not need to be a continual push for something one way or the other. We can simply look to our government to do what we feel it should and give it the appropriate tools and resources to do so.

If, by the statistical near certainty that our government officials screw up in some way, then we can deal with the problems as they arise. If problems persist and begin to occur at rates which we as a country feel are too high, we are likely to blame the government or someone, really anyone else.

It would probably be too much to ask that we look to the real culprit, who can only be seen in a mirror.

For if our system of government, which ultimately relies on the votes and actions of the people, continually fails us, we must accept the conclusion that we are failing ourselves.

Blaming the bull for destroying a china shop is quick and easy. In reality, fault lies not with the bull, but with whatever misguided matador let him out in the first place.

In the same way, blaming corrupt, negligent or irrelevant politicians for screwing up our government is quick and easy but it is never a solution. If we want to find a real fix, we should address the root of the problem. We must concede that maybe it is us. Maybe we are bad at picking politicians and need to do a better job of it.

It is simple to look to the wasteful actions or poor performances of government and conclude that it needs to be minimized, or that control of our country needs to be given in smaller doses.

The hard truth is that our system can work just fine, so long as we take responsibility to fill it with people who will not let us down.