By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

It is a given that government does not work.[2]  It's a bottomless pit into which money is thrown; and government employees are paid lots of money.  The money is better spent on their incarceration in one or more prisons, where they will be "eaten alive" by their fellow inmates.

The county is Napa in California's wine country, where the roads are worse than those in third-world countries.  The incompetence is so deep and all-pervasive that they cannot even draw straightlines, much less fix menacing potholes.  And the accumulated neglect is so great that one wonders whether the roads can ever be fixed.

They are accidents waiting to happen, as well as damage to motor vehicles, of all kinds.  Imagine a uniformed law enforcement officer being thrown to his or her death from a motorcycle; and then extrapolate that to the public at large.  Imagine the damage done to motor vehicles, of all types, and the cost of repairing them.

The logical start is to fire ALL existing employees, and terminate their retirement and other benefits; and bring in road experts from other states and countries, and set about devising a plan for the future.  Obviously, existing employees will scream, but they have earned harsh measures against them in spades.

Elon Musk and his DOGE are visionary.  Sometimes government rot is so deep and pervasive that it's better to destroy it and start over.  Napa is a shining example of this; and its road problems may be merely the tip of an enormous "iceberg" of government waste, corruption and incompetence.

Is it "wishful thinking" to believe that Napa's problems can be righted?  If so, the county may be a microcosm of and a window into government generally, and certainly American governments at the federal, state and local levels.  Are they unfixable?  Napa may give us the answer.

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© 2025, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/15/government-does-not-work-for-the-people/ ("Government Does Not Work For The People")