Living in a State of Perpetual Failure.

Modern civilization rests on a handful of basic public functions. When government cannot reliably perform those functions, everything else it promises becomes harder to believe.

Reasonable people can disagree about the size of government. They can debate taxes, regulations, healthcare, education, housing, and countless other public policies.

But before government attempts to solve the world’s most complicated problems, it should first demonstrate that it can accomplish the most basic ones.

Keeping the lights on would seem like a good place to start.

Once again, hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents found themselves without electricity for days. Refrigerators shut off. Food spoiled. Businesses lost revenue. Families endured sweltering nights. Elderly residents worried about medical equipment. Traffic lights shut off. Daily life came to a standstill.

Unfortunately, this is no longer unusual. It has become part of life in New Jersey.

For some families, a power outage is an inconvenience. For others, it means losing hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries they can scarcely afford to replace. It means checking on aging parents or worrying about sick children who may depend on electrically powered medical equipment. It means small businesses closing their doors, hourly workers losing wages, and children trying to sleep through another hot summer night. Government failure is never abstract. It is always endured by ordinary people.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that none of this is new.

New Jersey has experienced major storm-related power outages for years. Every administration has known the vulnerabilities. Governors have changed. Legislators have changed. Utility regulators have changed. Republicans and Democrats alike have had years—indeed decades—to ask hard questions, modernize the grid, strengthen our infrastructure, and demand greater accountability.

Yet after every major outage, the script never changes.

Some public officials issue statements.

Some engage in outrage performances Facebook trying to accumulate “likes”.

Some post social media “updates” which are just screenshots from the utility companies’ websites.

Some promise investigations.

Some point fingers at the utilities while the utilities point to the weather.

Republicans blame Democrats.

Democrats blame Republicans.

Everyone seems to find someone else responsible.

Then the lights come back on, the headlines disappear, the performances cease, the officials take a bow and then exit stage right.

And nothing changes before the next storm arrives.

Meanwhile, New Jersey families continue paying the price. Power outages do not distinguish between Republicans and Democrats or ask who someone voted for. Everyone sits in the dark together.

Families on both sides of the aisle lose their food. Parents on both sides of the aisle worry about their children and elderly relatives. Small businesses on both sides of the aisle lose customers and income.

Reliable electricity is not a Republican issue. It is not a Democratic issue.

It is one of the most basic responsibilities of modern government. And New Jersey has failed -- again.

New Jersey’s electrical grid looks less like twenty-first century infrastructure in one of the wealthiest and highest-taxed states in America and more like the backdrop of an old spaghetti Western—weathered wooden poles leaning over streets, sagging wires, and a system that seems held together by hope and temporary repairs.

Yet this is the same state that routinely asks its citizens to trust government with increasingly complex responsibilities. We create commissions, authorities, mandates, studies, strategic plans, and new regulations. We debate about artificial intelligence, climate policy, identity politics, school funding, housing mandates, economic transformation, and countless other issues.

Yet somehow, providing reliable electricity—a technology that has existed for well over a century—continues to elude us.

If government cannot reliably perform one of the most basic functions of modern civilization, why should citizens have confidence in its ability to perform far more complicated ones?

One of the fastest-growing “home improvement” purchases in New Jersey is no longer a new deck or a kitchen renovation.

It is a backup generator.

Families are expected to spend thousands of dollars simply to ensure that their homes have electricity when the public electrical system fails. It is difficult to imagine a clearer sign of institutional failure than expecting families to spend thousands of dollars compensating for infrastructure they already pay government and regulated utilities to provide. New Jersey families should not have to spend thousands of dollars to subsidize the government’s failure.

That is the larger issue.

A backup generator may be a practical solution for an individual homeowner, but it is not a solution for society. Every generator purchased because people no longer trust the public infrastructure represents another vote of no confidence in our state officials.

Citizens already pay monthly electric bills. They pay taxes that support the agencies responsible for regulating those utilities.

They should not also have to purchase an expensive backup electrical system simply because prolonged outages have become routine. It should not become a requirement for peace of mind.

Leadership means addressing foreseeable problems before they become recurring crises, especially when the problem has existed for years. For years, New Jersey’s elected officials have known that severe weather repeatedly exposes weaknesses in our electrical infrastructure.

Yet after each major outage, we hear the same promises and the same finger-pointing.

That is not leadership. That is failure.

This is just an example of the growing expectation that citizens must privately compensate for public failures.

What is most striking is not that the power went out—that is routine in New Jersey.

It was the public reaction.

People were angry. People were frustrated. People complained.

And beneath that anger was something even more troubling.

Hopelessness.

No one expected anything different.

They immediately turned to generators, gasoline, extension cords, flashlights, and dry ice—not because anyone believed this was acceptable, but because they believed it was not going to change.

People have not accepted government failure because they approve of it.

They have surrendered to it because they have lost confidence that anyone is capable—or willing—to fix it.

That may be the greatest failure of all.

The hallmark of institutional decline is not simply that failures occur. Every institution occasionally fails.

The hallmark of decline is when those failures become so routine that people stop expecting them to be corrected. Their expectations become smaller. Their confidence fades. Their hope diminishes.

They just surrender to them and accept them as normal.

People should expect competence from the institutions they fund.

Government does not earn legitimacy through speeches, press conferences or social media performances. It earns legitimacy by competently performing the basic responsibilities for which government exists.

Government derives its legitimacy from its ability to preserve and promote the conditions under which people can flourish through their own individual efforts while protecting the equal dignity and rights of everyone.

Reliable electricity is one of those conditions.

If, after years of warnings, years of outages, and years of bipartisan control, our leaders still cannot ensure one of the most basic necessities of modern life, then perhaps the place to begin solving New Jersey’s problems is not with another commission, another study, or another press conference.

Perhaps it begins with new leadership.

Because no one should live in a state where government failure has become the expectation.

The only thing New Jersey families can rely on is the unreliability of its government.