It’s time to remove our own regimes

 If you think about it, the Iranian regime and our governments — at the local, state and national levels — have similarities.

Bear with me here. Yes, there are incredibly vast differences between the Iranian regime and our governments. Our “regimes” don’t slaughter 30,000 people in the streets.

But our regimes, like the Iranian regime, often rig legislation to protect their power, adopt never-ending laws that infringe on and take away our liberty and confiscate the fruits of our labor to build entrenched, wasteful bureaucracies.

Let’s just say it’s a worthy cause to remove and eliminate the Iranian regime, a regime whose avowed goal is to destroy America (already having killed many) and most of the world.

Potentially and hopefully, our efforts in Iran also will benefit the oppressed Iranian people. While we can destroy the regime militarily, the Iranian people will have to rise up to replace the regime.

But let’s back up here, and start with: What is a regime? I’ll utilize this definition: a type of government in power — a military regime, totalitarian regime or authoritarian regime.

These regimes fight for their continued existence, which is why removal of the ayatollah will do nothing in Iran as long as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) still exists. The IRGC is part of the regime. Its members protect their power and live comfortably and off the backs of the Iranian people. 

Should the IRGC fall, the regime falls. But it will not fall easily or willingly.

How is the Iranian regime different than the regimes serving in our local, state and federal governments?

Remember, our founders fought at great sacrifice to free us from a different regime. And when they carefully created the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, they declared what our governments should be. The top sovereign was “We the People,” followed by states’ rights and then, at the bottom, specifically defined rules for a limited federal government. They said nothing about taxing us to oblivion or changing our rights.

But today, we have become servants to the local, state and federal governments.

Presumably, most of us expect our governments not to infringe on our constitutional rights and to protect our liberty. But I can recite multiple ways they are infringing on our rights, making our lives more difficult, not better. 

For instance, the Sarasota County/city budgets are growing at multiples faster than population growth. They are creating more government jobs. And as government expands in people and regulations, that logically means we have less liberty. More government = less liberty.

Are they making our lives better? Not that I can tell. Try reaching an actual human at City Hall or in the county. It is endless voicemail or automation hell.

We had three major hurricanes in 2024. Has the city or county done anything to alleviate the impacts of the next storm – i.e. infrastructure investment? Did they make it easy for citizens to rebuild or repair damages? No. They wanted permits and put devastated people through administrative hell to rebuild. How about permits to remove trees from your own property?

Or, look at Matt Walsh’s recent column on the Sarasota tax collector’s office. The tax collector’s budget increased 34%. Yet, did any one ever complain about the process or system under the past administration? Seems like empire building.

Local government seems to be riding on the back of the real estate boom of the last few years as people rushed to Florida. This generated increased real estate taxes, and, of course, like any government, our governments chose to spend it.

Indeed, the county budget has more than doubled in 10 years. But how will it respond when revenues fall? Will the county administration cut expenses? History says no.

How about the absurd proposal for a special tax for roads — new and repair? Haven’t we already been paying for this? They are incapable of setting aside funds and rather spend more than they have every year.

Perhaps the proposals in Tallahassee to eliminate property taxes will have a positive benefit.

But altogether, our governments rarely if ever do what is required of for-profit businesses. Businesses need to provide superior customer service or perish. But governments simply become regimes.

Look at Congress, our worst regime. If Congress did its job, there would be no need for executive orders by the last four or five presidents.

When was the last time Congress passed a budget that it lived by? 

What has the congressional regime done to make your life better? Or consider this: They shut down portions of the government and make us suffer (e.g. TSA), while they still get paid and then take a recess. Their “fringe” benefits are better than those in the private sector.

Some of us are still smarting over how our governments shut down our country during COVID, arbitrarily destroying some people’s lives and businesses and protecting others.

It is time for Americans to recognize we have our own entrenched regimes in our federal, state and local governments. And they all do the same thing: They believe what we have earned from our individual labors is theirs to take through never-ending taxation that doesn’t improve our lives or livelihood.

If we believe fighting to replace the Iranian regime is right, then it’s time to fight and replace the U.S. regimes. In Iran, we can probably prevail, but it will be up to the Iranian people to rebuild. 

We should provide the Iranian people with a strong example of “We the People” stepping up and taking back control of our own country. 

We don’t need a military or violent coup, but we do need to rise up and let our ruling regimes know we won’t take it anymore. Stop funding their campaigns. Indeed, vote out all incumbents.

“We the People” started from scratch 250 years ago. Let’s celebrate by starting afresh and taking back our country at every level — federal, state and locally.

Joel Schleicher is a resident of Sarasota and former chair of the Southwest Florida Water Management District.