Appreciated this essay a great deal.

These paragraphs are money:

Mostly we are annoyed by inane thickets of regulation and are suckers for a politician who vows to sweep them aside. Then, sometimes, we are so horrified by death and disaster — listeria outbreaks, nightclub fires, predatory financial scams, collapsing cribs, polluted wells — that we’re suckers for a politician who pledges to crack down.

The regulations surrounding us are obviously not perfect. Many could be written more simply; many really could use more input from working people and less manipulation by economically interested parties. There is a straightforward solution to these problems, but it is precisely the one that is hardest and least rousing to argue for, especially when antipathy to government is rising: not hacking away regulations, but doing the dull work of drafting better ones. This approach does not stir the soul when mentioned in speeches, and it’s unlikely to go viral in short videos; we are rarely suckers for hearing about moderately complex, deftly restrained rule making. It may nevertheless have a lot to recommend it.