evidence: But Jefferson’s wisdom needs updating. The lesson of the 20th century is clear: The government which governs best, governs least efficiently. [...] The prize for ultimate inefficiency goes to America. We have built in so many checks and balances that our "leaders" are the most thoroughly hogtied of any on earth. In a few weeks those of us who overcome inertia and apathy will enter polling places to choose our president, with less real choice than ever. Each candidate has tried to outdo the other in adopting popular centrist stances and avoiding anything difficult. We can rest assured that neither man will challenge the fundamental structure that will render winner and loser ineffectual, come Inauguration Day. Perhaps it would be better to have a restrained and less intrusive government, as Jefferson envisioned. A pleasant thought, but one that relies on politicians to restrain themselves. Better to let them restrain each other through inefficiency, caught in a morass of checks and balances, our freedom guarded not by fierce virtue but, rather, by simple unfeasibility. Not an elegant result, but a practical one. I think, in this sense, Jefferson would be pleased.