On August 12, 1986, President Ronald Reagan famously quipped in a press conference that the “nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.”
Well, if he was right, we should all be terrified—not only because the elites in Washington are openly offering to “help,” but also because they are shockingly ignorant of history.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, butchered Reagan’s iconic line, uttering, "I think it was President Reagan who said, 'We're from the government. We're here to help!’”
He meant it literally. He was actually offering to help—but the irony of Reagan’s quote seemed totally lost on him.
And needless to say, social media mocked him relentlessly for the faux pas.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona just said with a completely straight face "I think it was President Reagan who said, 'We're from the government. We're here to help.’”
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 27, 2023
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“The Education Secretary gets a failing grade. Fire him & shut it down,” tweeted COS endorser Vivek Ramaswamy, an open advocate for dismantling the administrative state.
Another user dubbed Cardona the “Lack of Education Secretary.”
“I actually find it chef's kiss perfect that the Education Secretary is this ignorant of history,” chimed in The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway.
But Secretary Cardona’s humiliating misquote betrays more than just his historical ignorance. It also offers a window into the mindset of Washington’s administrative class.
The federal government really does think it’s “here to help.” But Reagan feared that such dependence on the national government to meet our needs would ultimately stifle self-governance.
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” he reminded the nation in 1981. “From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.”
“It is my intention,” he later added, “to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.”
While Reagan, in many ways, was successful at “curbing the size and influence of the Federal establishment,” he could not ultimately finish the job. No single politician acting from within the system can.
To truly restore self-governance in America and cut Washington down to size, we must call an Article V convention, the Founders’ fail-safe against federal tyranny. Reagan himself supported calling a convention, noting that “we must rely on the states to force Congress to act. . . Fortunately, our Nation’s Founders gave us the means to amend the Constitution through action of state legislatures…”
If “I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help” are the most terrifying words to the American people, then certainly calls for an Article V convention are among the most terrifying for politicians like Miguel Cardona. It’s time to remind the establishment who’s really in charge in this country, and we can do that through Convention of States.
