The Government Sucks.
My husband and I both serve in the military. We believe deeply in service and in doing our part for something bigger than ourselves. Yet this week, as we wait for the government to decide whether to pay those still serving, it is hard not to notice how perfectly this moment reflects a larger truth.
The system we serve no longer serves us back. We have felt that truth for years, not just on a federal level but right here at home in Devine, Texas, where local bureaucracy has smothered the same spirit that once defined the American Dream.
The Dream That Was Supposed to Be Simple
When we came to Devine, our vision was simple. We wanted to build a home, raise our children, invest in property, and contribute to the kind of community that values faith, family, and honest work. We were not chasing riches. We were chasing stability and purpose.
But Devine taught us a hard lesson. The greatest obstacle to the American Dream is not failure. It is bureaucracy. Every attempt to grow or improve met another wall of regulation, delay, or confusion. Permits that should take weeks dragged on for months. Plans were lost, reinterpreted, or simply ignored.
What we faced was not leadership but a culture of death by a thousand processes. It was a system that exhausted rather than empowered.
When Local Problems Reflect a National Pattern
What struck me most was how familiar it all felt. The same patterns we see in Washington—the indecision, the self-preservation, the disregard for ordinary people—were alive and well in our small-town government.
At every level, those who are supposed to serve the public seem to have forgotten what service means. The bureaucrats in Devine, like those in the federal offices now debating paychecks for soldiers and airmen, appear more interested in protecting their positions than improving people’s lives.
They speak in policy language, not plain words. They hold meetings to plan more meetings. And while they shuffle papers, real families are left waiting for answers, for opportunity, and for relief.
Living the Shutdown in Real Time
This government shutdown is personal for us. As military members, we continue to work, to show up, and to serve. But our paychecks are frozen by political gridlock, the same kind of process paralysis that Devine lives under every day.
It is a reminder that the culture of bureaucracy does not start in Washington. It starts in every city hall that refuses to act, every council that delays, and every official who confuses procedure with progress.
The shutdown is just the federal version of what we have already endured locally. Hardworking people are caught in the gears of a system that forgot who it was built to serve.
Why We Are Choosing to Leave
We are not leaving Devine because we stopped believing in community. We are leaving because we are tired of being told “no” by people who do not create anything themselves.
We spent years trying to bring positive growth to a place that claimed to want it. Yet at every turn, the rules changed, the standards shifted, and the vision blurred. The same leaders who talked about revitalization rejected every opportunity to make it happen.
It became clear that many in local government would rather maintain control than make progress. They do not fear decline. They fear change.
The Bigger Truth
Our story is not unique. Across the country, Americans are running into the same invisible wall. Whether it is small-town zoning boards or congressional committees, the effect is the same. Government has become an obstacle to the very people it was designed to empower.
Bureaucracy has replaced service. Agendas have replaced accountability. The American Dream is not dead, but it is being buried alive beneath forms, fees, and processes that produce nothing but fatigue.
We can rebuild it, but not if we keep mistaking regulation for leadership and paperwork for purpose.
Still Serving, Still Hoping
Even now, as we navigate this government shutdown, I still believe in the core of what America can be. I believe in families who work hard, neighbors who show up, and leaders who remember that public office is a position of trust, not entitlement.
My family may leave Devine, but we have not left the mission. We are still serving, still building, and still believing that somewhere in this country, the system can work the way it was meant to.
The American Dream should not require a permit. And it should not depend on whether the government remembers to fund its own servants.
