Defeating the Leviathan: Children’s Edition

“That's why the truth is so powerful, Emily said, thinking of her Libertas character. If people know history, they won't be as likely to grow government just because they want it to solve their problems.” – The Tuttle Twins and the Leviathan Crisis

A 2022 report from the National Taxpayer Union Foundation looks at federal outlays from the time of the Constitution through 2021, showing an astounding upward trajectory beginning after World War II.  From America’s birth until the end of the 19th century, GDP remained relatively flat at around 2 percent.  With the advent of the Progressive movement, two World Wars, Roosevelt’s New Deal, and Johnson’s Great Society, the 20th century grew by more than 70 percent to an average of 17 percent of GDP.  By the start of the 21st century, big government was in full swing, averaging a GDP of 26 percent.  In our first COVID year, the government grew without constraints, spending a whopping 47 percent of GDP in 2020 alone.  By 2021, the government's share of GDP was still over 40 percent, a reflection of skyrocketing spending and deficits. 

For most of American History, government spending lagged behind the growth of the economy.  But when government spending exploded in the mid-twentieth century, the problem was not just its spending, but its expansion in size, scope, and power, evidenced by an increase in regulation in every area of American life. 

In Connor Boyack’s 2021 children’s book, “The Tuttle Twins and the Leviathan Crisis”, Boyack uses a children’s adventure game to parallel the crisis of a growing government.  As the Tuttle Twins battled against the forces of the Leviathan to beat Demigog, the Queen of Crisis, they also learned how a political candidate uses the country’s economic decline to create fear as they pander to expand their own power. 

Based on Robert Higgs's 1986 book, “Crisis and Leviathan”, Higgs reveals how a succession of crises during the 20th century was used to empower the government beyond its constitutional limits.  Following events like the two world wars and the Great Depression, Higgs shows how the public’s plea for government action results in policies and regulations that create even worse conditions at higher costs.  Each crisis led to not only an increase in the unchecked power of the federal government but also a lack of resistance from the American public.  Higgs then describes a ratcheting effect where the expansion of power continues after the crisis is gone, making it difficult to reverse a trend once it starts.  Perhaps the most perverse result of this constant demand for government intervention is the anti-American ideology of Big Government.

From World War I, the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, Johnson’s Great Society, the Cold War, the War on Drugs, and finally COVID, each crisis transformed the public, as they expected the government to be the sole fixer of every problem.  Instead of the public determining how their resources will be spent, more and more people turned to the government to have these decisions made for them.  

In this episodic book, the Tuttle Twins join a local adventure game where they choose characters, complete quests, and work to beat the Leviathan.  To help them win the game, the Idol of Leviathan card is played to stop the Demigog, who uses Clouded Mind spells to confuse the villagers into attacking the heroes.  On their way home from the game, the twins begin to see the effects of the current recession, with businesses closing and employees losing their jobs. 

A new politician, Bernadine Cortez (a character based on Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)), begins to stir up trouble.  Never letting a crisis go to waste (a phrase popularized by the Democrat mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel), politicians use fear to arouse people to their favored causes.  To solve the recession, Bernadine promises stimulus money to counter the poor economy.  Noted demagogues, Bernie Sanders, a one-time sympathizer of the Soviet Union, and AOC, the most famous member of the Progressive Squad, have promised potential voters everything from free healthcare to free college.  Both use the invention of a zero-sum game to incite race and class hatred, misrepresenting that if someone wins, another must lose. 

Using deceit to convince people that something is helpful when it is not is called a Trojan horse, another learning experience for the Tuttle children.  During the Trojan War, the Greeks used a hollowed-out wooden horse to hide their men.  At night, the soldiers escaped and opened the city gates to the Greek army, allowing them to win the battle.  The more fear works for the politicians, the more likely it is used to sway voters to keep them in power.

The best defense against such demagogues and fearmongers is the awareness that what the government and its officials are saying and doing is rarely the truth. 

The use of crises to grow government is an old game, but one that has proved to be successful time and again.