I wonder how many Alabamans are fond of "small government"?
It would be hard to sell anyone on the idea that Alabama is better governed.
I have lived in eight states and would rank them government-wise like this:
From best to worst:
Washington State
New Mexico
Maryland
Iowa
Kansas
West Virginia
Florida
Virginia
Of course, I lived in Kansas in the 1960's, and in the most enlightened city (Lawrence).
These days, I think Kansas would be perhaps the worst.
Factors I refer to are my experience with dealing with the DMV, registering to vote, convenience of government facilities and competence of public officials.
The single most annoying behavior was in Mississippi. We were driving along the Interstate headed toward Mobile when the eastbound traffic stopped dead. After about half an hour, people turned around and went the wrong way off the entry ramps to get on another road. There we were stopped by a Mississippi State patrolman who collected everyone's drivers licenses. He would not tell us why the Interstate was blocked, only that we had broken the law and could not move. After a while, he was joined by a couple more Smokies, who stayed in their cars with the AC on and the windows rolled up and their flashers on. They arrived at the scene by driving the wrong way down an entrance ramp just as we had.
After another hour and a half passed, he returned and handed back everyone's license and told us the Interstate was again passable and warned us never to repeat our grievous error again. He was stern, and answered no questions about anything, so far as I could tell. There were a number of birds flipped. but I don't think Officer Unfriendly saw them, because he was facing the other way.
