To the editor:

Our government’s mandate is the good of its citizens. The preamble to the U.S. Constitution outlines those purposes, among them promoting “the general Welfare.”

When our government ceases to function as it should, we’re all harmed. And each political faction blames the other. But it couldn’t be clearer where the blame lies.  The faction whose guiding principle is that “government IS the problem,” is not invested in the constitutional purpose of government doing good toward its citizens. Their “good” is rather that government cease functioning, as we now have.

All of Kansas’ congressional delegation (and most of our state government) is of that faction. My own congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins, approvingly quoted that Reaganite principle in last year’s campaign, but she’s hardly alone in espousing it.

It becomes clearer every day that the philosophy of anti-government governance is unworkable, and harms our country. Perhaps we can hope that that anarchist faction will disavow their principles. Politicians often do.

But in the meantime, blaming the other faction for government shutdown is de facto acknowledgement that their principles do great harm — for which they don’t want the blame.