You might think after the 2010 elections, three rounds of recall elections, and the 2012 elections, Wisconsinites would be sick of politics.

One, however, apparently is not: Reince Priebus, former chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party, and now chair of the national GOP. At the state convention last weekend, Priebus said, according to Wisconsin Report:

“When we talk about the growth and opportunity plan, we’re talking about being a permanent party, a party that understands we’re in permanent politics all the time,” Priebus told the hundreds gathered at the Republican Party of Wisconsin‘s Republican State Convention at the Patriot Center in the Marathon County village of Rothschild.

“The other side is engaged in a permanent, across-the-board campaign that started five years ago and never ended….We are becoming a granular, coast-to coast-operation that will go toe-to-toe and surpass our opponents, but it’s got to start now,” said Priebus, key-note speaker for the weekend event. …

Part of that growth, he said, hinges on changing the presidential nomination process, including halving the number of primary debates – “a travelling circus” – and moving the national convention, where the presidential nominee is officially named, from August to June.

That announcement led Priebus to answer attacks from within the party that he’d become “too establishment.”

“It’s not an establishment takeover; it’s using your head,” the Kenosha native quipped.

The thought that comes to mind is a quote from some wit about most people’s (supposed) attitude about their employer’s management, that they want them to stop managing them. While replacing idiot Democrats with Republicans would be preferable, what would be most preferable is for government to stop trying to run, or ruin, our lives. Politicians are not your friend, whether they have a D or an R after their names. Political parties are not run in your best interests; political parties are run in their best interests.

Why, for instance, should voters choose Republicans when they appear to offer very little different from Democrats? The state budget is now cash-balanced (as opposed to correctly balanced, as in according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), but nearly all of Gov. James Doyle’s $2.2 billion tax increase remains in place. The state still buys tens of millions of dollars of land for no reason and no use (the Knowles–Nelson Stewardship Program). Government-employee unions still exist. The job-killing Department of Natural Resources still exists unchanged. State and local governments, all 3,120 of them, still employ far, far, far too many people, and nothing at all has been done to reduce Govzilla’s sucking the marrow out of us Wisconsinites.

Now that a few weeks have passed since the Boston Marathon bombings, it should be clear that, from the failure to catch the brothers planting their bombs before the race to their (probably unconstitutionally) locking Bostonians in their houses (those houses they didn’t raid, that is) to find the one surviving brother, government screwed up much more than it did well. The only people who appear to have done their jobs well are the first responders after the bombs went off. Recall that the surviving brother was caught only after the stay-in-your-homes order was lifted.

The lesson that has been repeated time and again is that politicians, regardless of party, will work to consolidate their power unless they are prevented from doing so. That is why we have a Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. That is why we need a Taxpayer Bill of Rights in the state Constitution. Government does much, much, much, much more to us than for us, particularly in an overgoverned state like Wisconsin.