One of the time-honored mantras of the Republican Party is their distaste for many government regulations. They claim that regulations choke freedom of expression, discourage creativity, impinge on personal liberties, and burden free enterprise with unnecessary costs that drive up the price of goods and services.

The current commander in chief of regulations, Donald Trump, has proposed that for every new federal government regulation, two existing ones must go to the chopping block. He has not demonstrated leadership on which regulations should go, but I’ll bet the farm that most of them will be regulations that govern mining and fossil fuel extraction, mega agriculture, timber industries, pharmaceuticals, banking and investment.

To his most devoted followers, Trump is just making good on the promise that he made to “make America great again.” To others, including me, it is a recipe for anarchy.

To illustrate how bewildering his position is, I have chosen to use the commercial airline industry as an example of “be careful what you wish for” regarding regulations.

The commercial airline industry is one of the most heavily regulated and for good reasons.

For those who think government regulations are too burdensome, pause for a moment and think about an imaginary nonstop flight on board MAGA (as in Make America Great Again) Airlines Flight 101 from Boston to San Diego.

You are pleased that you didn’t have to go through the now defunct TSA security check-in and you have settled into your seat (no more seat belts to deal with) and checked the safety on your Glock G30S. The engines have started and the pilot’s voice comes on the intercom.

“Good morning, folks. This is your captain speaking. We have clear skies and good weather across our flight path. We will be arriving on time in San Diego. In keeping with new government policies, we have chosen to ignore a bunch of burdensome airline safety regulations. Our cockpit staff has been instructed to ignore any advice from the Federal Aviation Administration. We know more than they know. We will proceed on an independent fight plan and make flight decisions as we encounter them. Landing in San Diego may be a bit dicey because we have no intention of asking the control tower for landing instructions. They are just overpaid federal hacks. It’s every man for himself. First come, first served. Settle back, light up, relax and enjoy the flight on MAGA Airlines.”

Only a fool or an insane person would fly on that airline. Good regulations make good sense.

Are there some unnecessary regulations? Of course there are. Some may be redundant, others arcane. They should be dealt with in an orderly and intelligent process.

Good regulations have taken decades of dedicated and honest work from responsible, well-intentioned and educated people to ensure that the American people have the safest and cleanest environment in which to raise new generations of valuable citizens of all political persuasions.

Let’s not accept some ill-conceived notion that we can rescue ourselves from the clutches of those nasty bureaucratic rules and regulations by using an irrational process and still have healthy air to breath, clean water to drink, safe travel and workplace environments, and millions of acres of unspoiled American wilderness and national parks for all of us to enjoy.

Be skeptical of those who want to promote the 2-for-1 approach. They have an agenda. I can guarantee that the top 1 percent will get the lion’s share of the benefits from deregulation and the rest of us will get to pay for it with the degradation of our environment.

It is not about making America great again. It’s a thinly disguised attempt for ill-gotten profits, power and control – and unprecedented greed.

(Jim Baer lives in Concord.)