Well (to quote the former president), Mr. Reagan did quip that "Government isn't the solution; government is the problem." I guess some Republicans took him at his word.
On Aug 19, 5:35 pm, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Conservatives Don’t Hate GovernmentbySheldon Richman, August 19, 2011 > Sometimes I wonder whether the mainstream pundits listen to themselves. It’s > hard to believe they would say the silly things they say if they did. > For example, the talking heads on MSNBC, which works 24/7 for President > Obama’s reelection, like to say that conservative Republicans “hate > government.” “If you hate government,” Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, > asks, “why would you want tobethe government?” > Matthews’s evidence for this hatred is the conservatives’ harping on the > large national debt, which is about equal to the GDP, and deficit spending, > which is close to half of total federal spending, and their opposition to > higher taxes to shrink the deficit. To Matthews, expressing concern about > those numbers and opposing further spending, borrowing, and taxing is proof > of hatred for government. A devastating piece of evidence was Republican > votes against raising the debt ceiling even though the package contained > future spending cuts. (Of course, they were not real cuts, but merely small > decreases in the rate of spending growth.) The symbol of conservative hatred > for government, Matthews said, came during the last Republican presidential > debate, when all the candidates raised their hands to indicate they would > oppose a deficit-reduction package that contained $10 in spending “cuts” for > every $1 in increased revenues. > Leaving aside the question of how sincere most Republican conservatives are > when they rail against deficit spending, I would like Matthews and his ilk to > answer a simple question: > How can a group of politicians and political activists be said to hate > government, or “Washington,” when they enthusiastically support: the U.S. > government’s global bullying; invasions, occupations, and endless wars; > secret CIA prisons; torture as an interrogation technique; extraordinary > rendition in which suspects are sent to foreign countries for torture by > brutal dictatorships; support for “friendly” foreign autocrats and other > oppressive regimes; the USA PATRIOT Act, including warrantless surveillance; > national-security letters; the military-industrial complex; the war on drug > users/sellers/makers; energy independence; intellectual-property enforcement; > restrictions on immigrants and employer sanctions; consumption taxes; federal > marriage regulation; and corporate welfare? I’m sure I’ve left some things > out. > No one who embraces these liberty-killing actions can claim to be for small > government, much less against government altogether. Most conservatives are > as much for overpowering government as so-called liberals are. They just want > the government to be overpowering in different matters, although that is less > true than it once was. Conservatives have a cultural animosity to a welfare > state that seems to cater to low-income people; apparently for them nothing > is worse than an immigrant’s going on the dole. On the other hand, they have > little problem with middle-class welfare, such as Social Security and > Medicare. One of their arguments against Obamacare was that it includes a > half-trillion-dollar cut in Medicare. True, they sometimes talk about giving > a role in these programs to private companies, but that’s driven more by a > pro-business orientation and a desire for efficiency than by any desire to > end the programs. > So-called liberals, on the other hand, would expand all welfare- state > programs while keeping the power “in-house” rather than farming it out to > business they prefer government bureaucrats to corporate bureaucrats. There > might have been a time when “liberals” could be said to oppose the global > military establishment, but those days are long gone. When did you last hear > a member of President Obama’s party criticize his war program, which is > virtually indistinguishable from George W. Bush’s? > So the two dominant forces in American politics favor domineering government > and, necessarily, a smaller sphere for individual freedom and free markets. > Why, then, do Matthews & Co. insist that conservatives hate government? A > reasonable explanation is that this strategy is intended to scare people into > thinking there is no enlightened alternative to big-government pro-empire > Progressivism. They can’t hit conservatives on foreign policy and civil > liberties because they hold the same views! So they have to convince > Americans that conservatives would tear down everything they know and love. > It’s false, but it may be effective. > What’s lacking is a true pro-liberty, anti-power alternative. Actually, it’s > not lacking. There are plenty of people promoting the libertarian vision. But > the conservative and “liberal” intelligentsia have little interest in letting > the American people in on it.http://www.fff.org/comment/com1108p.asp -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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